Introduction The PICOT question is: How does the standard health education to implement patient-specific dietary and lifestyle modifications compare to patients who receive culturally tailored diabetes education and the reduction of mean blood sugar levels among Asian Americans diagnosed for type 2 diabetes 2-3 weeks after education is provided?

Problem Statement

Asian-Americans are the fastest growing ethnic group, yet the exact extent to which this population can effectively treat type 2 diabetes through health education is currently unclear (Hsu, Araneta, Kanaya, Chiang & Fujimoto, 2015). This study aims to address this problem by filling a gap in the literature regarding this issue.

Synthesized Review

Ho, Tran and Chesla (2015) show that it is not a simple procedure to assess what is culturally meaningful among Asian Americans, particularly among the Chinese American population, partly because of a “complex definition of culture that moves beyond just race, ethnicity and language and also focuses on geography, religion, spirituality, biological and sociological characteristics” (p. 39). This complexity extends beyond just Chinese Americans and includes all Asian Americans, as Islam et al. (2015) show in their study of Asian American disparities as compared to other racial and ethnic minority groups in New York City. These disparities make it difficult to determine the extent to which culturally relevant health education material can have an impact on reducing blood sugar levels among the Asian American population that suffers from type 2 diabetes (Jih et al., 2016).

As Jih et al. (2016) point out in their study of educational interventions among Chinese Americans in order to promote health nutrition, print materials...

However, as Islam et al. (2015) showed in their study of diabetes management among Asian Americans, overall Asian Americans were more difficult to manage in terms of moving them to take ownership of their own diabetes management. Islam et al. (2015) found in their sampling of ethnic minorities that among all the various ethnic groups, Asian Americans were the least likely to monitor through self-check their own blood sugar levels. This is problematic because as Hsu, Aranet, Kanaya, Chiang and Fujimoto (2015) showed in their systematic review of the literature available on Asian Americans, this population is growing and its risk of developing diabetes is growing as well, though this population does not meet the criteria for obesity or for being overweight according to the findings of Hsu et al. (2015), which makes it difficult for clinicians to identify possible at-risk scenarios just through an informal assessment. In short, it is important to develop a better method of understanding this diverse population, which has a great deal of different ethnicities within its subset—from Chinese to Japanese to Indian to Filipino Americans: all have their own unique characteristics.
Description of the Case/Situation/Conditions

The different situations examined by researchers in the past 5 years include diabetes management among Asian Americans (Islam et al., 2015), the effect of health education on a specific subset of Asian Americans—Chinese Americans (Jih et al., 2016); the particular risks associated with being an Asian American in terms of diabetes, diagnosis, and mitigation of the risk of onset (Hsu et al., 2015); and the need to better understand the cultures and…