Socio-economic diabetes risk factors in Cleveland, Miss. (2010)

Undergraduates: Kenneth Barshop, Eric Butter

Faculty Advisor: Stephen Clark
Department: International & Area Studies

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Type-2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) is a rapidly growing epidemic here in the United States. The rapid increases in T2DM rates in recent years and obvious racial and regional disparities suggest that this is a problem complicated beyond genetics: to fully understand this epidemic, factors both socioeconomic and cultural must still be more fully explored. Studies have shown that independent of body-mass index (BMI) and race, T2DM incidence can be attributed to modifiable social factors. The small “Deep South” town of Cleveland, Miss., is a model environment for such a study into economic and cultural diabetes predictors.

This study included a retrospective randomized chart review, interview/survey, and geospatial analysis for 517 T2DM patients in 2008, all attending Cleveland Medical Clinic in Cleveland, Miss. The geospatial analysis included measurements of, for example, distances from (deidentified) patient addresses to nearest fast food restaurants or recreational facilities, traffic congestion near patient addresses, and crime rate densities. Typical cardiovascular disease and diabetes markers were collected for both cohorts, and interviews (98% response rate) were conducted to elucidate important socioeconomic information, such as income, education, fitness level, and health knowledge.

First, an exploratory analysis of the data was conducted to elucidate simple trends in the data. Next, basic linear models / analysis of variance (ANOVA) estimates were run across all groups, w