History of the Curriculum
“What Can I Eat?": From Vision to Reality
Origin of the Need for Culturally Tailored Diabetes Nutrition Education for AI/ANs
In 2015, the Shakopee Mdewakanton Sioux Community (SMSC) launched Seeds of Native Health, a five-year (2015-2020), $11-million national campaign to support grassroots practitioners, researchers, and advocates who were working to restore healthful diets across Indian Country. The campaign worked to improve American Indian and Alaska Native (AI/AN) nutrition through grant-making, sharing of best practices, capacity-building, sponsored research, advocacy, and educational initiatives. One of the initiatives, as prioritized by the SMSC Seeds of Native Health Leadership, was to support the development of a culturally-tailored diabetes nutrition education program for AI/AN adults with type 2 diabetes.
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Initiative to Culturally Adapt the "What Can I Eat?" Curriculum
In early 2018, SMSC partnered with the American Diabetes Association to release a Request for Proposals (RFP) for an adaptation of the American Diabetes Association’s intensive, outcomes-based nutrition program entitled, “What Can I Eat?: Choices for People with Type 2 Diabetes and their Families” for AI/AN populations. This grant aimed to support the cultural adaptation and scaling of “What Can I Eat?” to multiple Tribal communities across the United States in three phases.
- Phase 1: Program Planning & Formative Research, Recommendations for Adaptation
- Phase 2: Program Adaptation and Piloting
- Phase 3: Monitoring and Evaluation
Cultural Adaptation of "What Can I Eat?" and Initial Pilot Testing
Dr. Kelly Moore (Muscogee Creek Nation of Oklahoma) and her team responded to the RFP and were awarded 3 years of funding from the American Diabetes Association (4-18-SMSC-01, Moore, 2018-2021) to culturally adapt its original "What Can I Eat?" curriculum to the unique contextual needs of AI/AN communities and AI/AN adults with type 2 diabetes. The resulting curriculum was titled"What Can I Eat?" Healthy Choices for American Indians and Alaska Natives with Type 2 Diabetes (WCIE AI/AN).
For the pilot trial, 60 participants from 5 collaborating sites across the United States were randomized to either the immediate intervention or the waitlist control group (waitlist group started classes 3 months after randomization).
Further Expansion and Evaluation of WCIE AI/AN
Building on this work, in 2021, Dr. Moore’s study coordinator and project collaborator, Dr. Sarah Stotz, was awarded a grant from the National Institutes of Health (K01DK128023) and another grant from the American Diabetes Association (11-22-ICTSN-10) to expand the evaluation of WCIE AI/AN.