Introduction
Managing diabetes will look different as people age. The life course approach, a public health framework, posits that health is shaped by exposures to behavioral, environmental, and psychosocial factors. These health exposures occur during all life stages, including gestation, infancy, childhood, adolescence, and adulthood. The framework also suggests that exposures at each life stage shape long-term health outcomes, including disease risk. This is why it is critical to maintain healthy habits throughout each stage of life and manage diabetes successfully.
Management Throughout the Life Course
Adjusting to life with diabetes is difficult at any age. It requires adopting new habits and behaviors and educating yourself on the condition. For young individuals diagnosed in childhood and adolescence, managing diabetes can become a challenge. Enormous physical, behavioral, and social transitions occur during these life stages. Access to medical care, support networks, and safe school and work environments is critical to successful management.
Additional supportive measures that can be taken to assist youth with their diabetes as they transition into adulthood include continuity of care between pediatric and adult medical providers, familial engagement, and a focus on patient-centered symptom management. In adulthood, familial involvement isn’t as common, and providers place much more emphasis on health interventions and recommendations.
Healthy Supportive Habits
- Healthy Eating – expanding access to healthier food involves advocating for more farmers’ markets, co-ops, and grocery stores in underserved communities. Removing barriers to public transportation also ensures equitable access to food resources. Healthy eating can be practiced at each stage of the life course: infancy, childhood, adolescence, and adulthood. Eating a balanced diet, including fruits, vegetables, and antioxidants, can help with blood sugar management. Cooking healthy meals involves some planning and preparation, but nutrition is key to the management of diabetes. The American Diabetes Association has a hub for kid-friendly, healthy, and affordable recipes.
- Staying Active – role modeling exercise can help young kids visualize and understand the importance of staying active. Placing limitations on the amount of screen time that children are exposed to can also help them spend more time outside and engage in a healthier lifestyle. Additionally, making it part of their daily routine is also effective. For example, encouraging teenagers to walk or use their bikes to get to school. These tips extend to adults as well, and other activities can be practiced. Walking with friends, finding a local exercise class, or turning on a YouTube video are great ways to combine exercise and community.
- Sleep and Managing Stress – Practicing good sleep hygiene and stress management habits can also help manage diabetes. Finding healthy ways to cope with stress, including finding support from family and friends, can positively impact your well-being.
The Social Determinants of Health and Inequities in Management
Diabetes management throughout the life course at an individual level involves implementing healthy behaviors and making healthy decisions. However, maintaining healthy behaviors and having the ability to make healthy decisions are largely dependent on the social determinants of health and existing health inequities. The social determinants of health refer to social factors and environmental conditions that influence health outcomes, including the circumstances in which an individual was born and grew up, their community, and the social policies and systems that have shaped their living conditions. These conditions perpetuate diabetes disparities affecting marginalized communities.
Diabetes disproportionately affects racial and ethnic minorities and low-income communities. Disparities persist when it comes to diagnosis: racial and ethnic minority populations have a higher likelihood of living with undiagnosed diabetes. Individuals of low socioeconomic status are at an increased risk of diabetes. Additionally, the prevalence of diabetes is higher for individuals who have less than a high school education, compared to those who have obtained more than a high school education. These inequities demonstrate that being diagnosed, living with, and managing diabetes is more difficult for these populations, leading to adverse health outcomes.
How to Maintain Healthier Habits
Sustaining healthy habits requires implementing small, approachable, and successful goals. Managing diabetes is a marathon, not a sprint. Therefore, resources and tools should be tailored with the goals of sustainable long-term care in mind. Promoting a healthy lifestyle, shifting social norms, raising awareness, and improving access to medical interventions are important. Furthermore, addressing systemic inequities is a key factor in assisting marginalized communities with diabetes. There are also secondary factors that can contribute to improved diabetes management outcomes in underserved populations. These include working on eliminating food deserts, increasing the availability of medical providers, and enhancing accessibility to online educational resources and platforms like Yumlish.
Conclusion
Managing diabetes at each stage of life presents distinct challenges. Healthy habits and maintaining good health vary, especially influenced by the resources that individuals and communities have access to. Racial and ethnic minorities, as well as low-income populations, are more vulnerable to disparities in diabetes management due to the social determinants of health and systemic inequities. Meeting individuals and communities where they are, and encouraging the adoption of as many health-focused behaviors as possible, is crucial for successful public health intervention. Additionally, shedding light on existing disparities is a critical step toward reforming current policies to make them more supportive and equitable toward people who have diabetes.