Transcript

Sound Partners Report #4
09/30/03

TH: Tammy House, Diabetes Program Coordinator and Educator
SC: Sandi Chesebrough, Grant Program Coordinator for the Saginaw Chippewa Tribe
DV: David Nicholas, WCMU News Director

Host Intro:
CMU Public Broadcasting’s study of “Healthy Weight in Pre-School Children” is a grant-funded program from Sound Partners for Community Health, supported by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the Benton Foundation.

News Director David Nicholas broadens the focus of the story with this report on the Native American population and the particular challenges they face when it comes to nutrition and exercise…

DV:
We have established so far the primary root causes of the escalating rates of childhood overweight and obesity. While looking at children in the youngest age group is designed to raise awareness of the problem and provide preventative information, in addition, there are disturbing trends within minority populations directly linked to the lack of nutrition and physical activity. Diabetes is more prominent per capita in the Native American community than in any other racial group.

This weekend, the Saginaw Chippewa Indian Tribe of Michigan will hold their 5th Annual Diabetes Management Conference at the Soaring Eagle Hotel and Conference Center in Mt. Pleasant. The conference is geared to health care professionals who are treating patients of all races who have the disease.

Tammy House is the Diabetes Program Coordinator and Educator for the tribe and she explains the trend within minority populations as a whole toward the increased rate of diabetes…

TH:
Well, I think as far as with minority groups as they come over to the western world and follow the ways that Americans do as far as the fast foods and the lifestyle, more and more of the minorities are developing chronic illnesses that they didn’t if they followed the native ways whether it be the Asian group or anybody.

DV:
You can have a stereotyped idea that children again, generally, are more vulnerable. Do you see that same trend in minority children, also where problems across the board they might be more susceptible to?

TH:
Yes. As they grow up, their change in lifestyle happens early when they are first born or are real young versus if you are an adult and you start following the lifestyle. They start early on and you may not see the chronic illnesses until they are into adulthood and it has done a lot of damage before anything is detected.

DV:
Since 1997 Indian Health Services has targeted diabetes with specific grant funding for Indian Country. Sandi Chesebrough is the Grant Program Coordinator for the Saginaw Chippewa Tribe. I spoke with Sandi and Tammy House about what is known about the rising problems with diabetes among Native Americans and what is being done to address those concerns…

SC:
If you take the rates of every minority and the white population, Native Americans have the smallest population base, but yet the highest incidence of diabetes of any of the minorities.

DV:
Thinking about it on almost a per capita type relationship?

SC:
Yes.

DV:
Have they been able to trace it down to a root cause what it is about the makeup of body chemistry or factors along those lines as to what may be causing this to be more of a problem?

TH:
There’s theories. There is the “thrifty gene” theory that says that back when they followed traditional ways, their bodies had to work more efficiently in different times. There were times of fast and then famine. Their bodies had to be able to survive in times when there was no food available. And now that there is food available all the time, and they don’t have to go out and hunt, and walk for miles, and gather berries and things like that, their bodies are still storing the fat for famine times and there is no famine so it just keeps being stored and stored and stored, and the body can’t handle it anymore.

DV:
Tammy House and Sandi Chesebrough want to start looking at the affect of eliminating recess for school children. School districts in Michigan, including Mt. Pleasant schools have faced opposition for cutting back or cutting out time for recess during the school day. House and Chesebrough said they are encouraged by the Mt. Pleasant Parks and Recreation Department’s efforts to provide more programs for children that focus on after school physical activity.

The two said that cultural influences within the Native population can withstand some of the typical pressures that other young people face up to a point…

SC:
I don’t think they have the hang-ups as much as the general population. Some of the elders still think that a fat baby is a health baby, but that is no different than…my mother thinks the same thing…a fat baby is a healthy baby. But also, culturally they do tend to have bigger babies. That is just a fact of life. Not even necessarily that the mothers are diabetic or anything. Their babies just tend to be bigger. Women who are Native American tend to have a lot heavier bone density. A woman, who is more slender than a white woman, might actually weigh more. I don’t think they really tend to get as hung up on the weight issues.

TH:
I think some of the high school kids...

SC:
Some of the younger kids are getting it, because they have so many other influences just like any other child.

DV:
So again, it is the outside influences, cultural influences…

SC:
Right. It’s not from within the community.

DV:
The conference this weekend at the Soaring Eagle Casino Hotel and Conference Center is geared to health care professionals. Tammy House and Sandi Chesebrough said the goals are to continue to raise awareness about diabetes and its impact on Native Americans…

SC:
Well we try to look at many different aspects of diabetes, but one of our goals is that the general population of healthcare doesn’t really stay up to date on diabetes or they can’t zero in on it all the time like we do. We have a specific program where that is all we do and we try to stay up to date. It’s hard for general practitioners to do that yet they still see diabetic clients, and what our goal is, is to have them become more up to date, know what the latest trends are...because we do have some people from our community that go to outside physicians. We get scared sometimes with the things that they come back and say to us. Indian Health Service, even though they don’t give many dollars is really on the edge of Diabetes care, I mean, they are really leading the way. And now that we have this grant process and we are reporting to Congress, Congress is very, very impressed by what is being done in Indian country. I guess that is our goal, to get it out there in the community and have, not just our community members but everyone, be more taken care of.

DV:
Sandi Chesebrough and Tammy House emphasized that the goals toward diabetes management and prevention are in line with Healthy People 2010 Initiatives as outlined by the President’s Administration and the federal government.

Space is still available for the 5th Annual Diabetes Management Update Conference. Dr. Douglas Henry is the Keynote Speaker. The number for registration and for further information is (989) 775-4674. (The conference took place October 3rd and 4th, 2003.)

For more information about our Healthy Weight for Preschool Children website, visit www.healthyweightforkids.org. As an added note, CMU’s Educational Materials Center has produced the literacy-related Read, Education And Develop Youth, or R.E.A.D.Y. kits since the program’s inception in 1998. The infant kits will be distributed through sites where healthcare providers can provide them to eligible Medicaid families. On September 30, Gov. Jennifer Granholm announced the new infant R.E.A.D.Y. kits as part of “Project Great Start,” a movement to increase learning in the critical years from birth to age five. Among the added resources are cards developed by the Healthy Weight in Preschool Children project, funded through a Sound Partners grant received by CMU’s Public Broadcasting. “The Way to Go…Weigh to Grow” cards are included in the health and safety folder of the new kit.

Research assistance for this story came from Melanie Stanczak.
For Sound Partners and CMU Public Radio, I’m David Nicholas.