diabetes diet

A new initiative identifies and addresses the inter-related factors that lead to obesity and diabetes.

The Keck Diabetes Prevention Initiative was created with a $2 million grant from the W.M. Keck Foundation to identify factors that contribute to decisions about diet, physical activity and health care within the East Los Angeles and South Los Angeles communities. It also seeks to develop diabetes-prevention strategies and promote healthy lifestyle choices that are appropriate for the populations in these areas, as well as engage and mobilize experts, government officials, community leaders, businesses and residents.

The two-year initiative has the support of the Los Angeles County Department of Health Services.

“The number of overweight and obese individuals in the United States has reached epidemic proportions, resulting in serious medical, economic and quality-of-life issues,” says Anne Peters, M.D., professor of medicine at the Keck School of Medicine and director of the USC Clinical Diabetes Program. About 65 percent of the nation’s adult population and 15 percent of its youth are overweight, with nearly one in three Americans considered obese.

Studies indicate that Los Angeles County is at the epicenter of the problem, with 55 percent of its adult population overweight or obese. The highest rates of adult obesity are found in East Los Angeles, South Los Angeles and the Antelope Valley.

“The increase in obesity is associated with higher mortality rates and a higher risk for numerous medical conditions, including type 2 diabetes, stroke, arthritis, coronary heart disease and certain types of cancer,” Peters says, adding that obese adults are five times more likely than non-obese adults to develop type 2 diabetes. Nationwide, diabetes has become the sixth leading cause of death.

“In the past 25 years, the percentage of children ages 6 to 11 who are overweight has doubled and the percentage of overweight adolescents, ages 12 to 19, has tripled,” says Francine R. Kaufman, M.D., head of the division of endocrinology and metabolism and director of the Center for Endocrinology, Diabetes and Metabolism at Childrens Hospital Los Angeles and professor of pediatrics at the Keck School of Medicine.

The Keck School and Childrens Hospital Los Angeles have nationally recognized diabetes programs. Peters and Kaufman will direct the Keck Diabetes Prevention Initiative.

A recent study by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention predicts that one in three children born in 2000 will develop diabetes during their lifetimes. Physical fitness test results in 2001 for youngsters in grades 5, 7 and 9 indicated that 40 percent of children in Los Angeles County were either obese or at risk of becoming obese. The fitness tests indicated that children in East Los Angeles and South Los Angeles were more likely to be obese than children in other parts of the county.

Two community health centers will partner with the Diabetes Initiative: The Edward Roybal Comprehensive Health Center and The Hubert Humphrey Compre-hensive Health Center. The Roybal Center serves the Boyle Heights neighborhood, as well as the unincorporated neighborhoods of City Terrace and East Los Angeles. Michael Roybal, M.D., is its medical director.

The Humphrey Center has a service area that includes the communities of Watts and Athens in South Los Angeles, as well as the unincorporated neighborhood of Florence/Firestone. Mayer B. Davidson, M.D., is the principal investigator of the diabetes clinical trials at the Humphrey Center.