TRIBAL DIABETES EDUCATORS. Tribal college faculty and staff, NIH staff, and tribal members collaborate to develop effective diabetes education curriculum. Photo by NIH NIDDK staff.

Students in tribal college communities are learning about diabetes, and their response will affect students nationwide in a few years. The Diabetes Education in Tribal Schools (DETS) program involves eight tribal colleges that are developing diabetes-based science curriculum for K-12 students with grants from the National Institutes of Health (NIH).

NIH funds health care research in several tribal colleges either directly through its institutes or through state university-administered grants. The funded projects are expected to impact specific tribal health needs, raise public awareness, and hopefully attract more students into the health professions. NIH (an agency of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services) is the primary federal agency for conducting and supporting medical research.

The tribal colleges involved in DETS include Cankdeska Cikana Community College (Fort Totten, ND), Fort Peck Community College (Poplar, MT), Haskell Indian Nations University (Lawrence, KS), Keweenaw Bay Ojibway Community College (Baraga, MI), Leech Lake Tribal College (Cass Lake, MN), Southwest Indian Polytechnic Institute (Albuquerque, NM), and Stone Child College (Box Elder, MT).

“The research is proceeding quite well,” said Lawrence Agodoa, M.D., in a recent phone interview from his office in Bethesda, MD. Agodoa directs the Office of Minority Health Research Coordination, which is part of NIH’s National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK).

The tribal college projects developed curriculum that incorporates tribal culture and ways of learning, according to Agodoa. The curriculum emphasizes nutrition and exercise.

Principal investigators from the participating tribal colleges meet three times per year to review ongoing progress, to consult with experts in curriculum development, and to meet with the Tribal Leaders Diabetes Committee. The DETS projects will conclude in 2009, but NIDDK is exploring ideas generated from the currently funded tribal colleges’ project staff for additional projects.

For more information, see www.nih.gov.