The Diabetic Health of African American Grandmothers Raising their Grandchildren

PURPOSE: The purpose of this study is to compare the health of primary caregiving African American grandmothers with diabetes with African American women with diabetes who were not primary caregivers. DESIGN: Using a comparative, descriptive, cross-sectional design, 34 African American primary caregiving grandmothers were compared with 34 non-caregiving women with diabetes mellitus; women aged 55–75 years were recruited for this study throughout the central Arkansas. METHODS: To measure the overall health, data on blood pressure, body mass index measurements, HbA1c levels, total cholesterol, and urine protein and creatinine levels were collected from all the participants. RESULTS: Statistically significant differences between the caregivers and non-caregivers groups in systolic pressure (t = −3.42, P = 0.001) and diastolic pressure (t = −3.790, P = 0.000) and urine protein (W = 294.00, P = 0.000) were noted. Additionally, a clinically significant difference in HbA1c was noted between groups. CONCLUSION: Differences in systolic and diastolic pressures, urine protein, and clinically significant differences in HbA1c suggest that African American primary caregiving grandmothers with diabetes mellitus may have more difficulty in maintaining their diabetic health than non-caregiving African American women.