Michigan Men's Diabetes Project

The investigators propose to develop a training for male peer leaders facilitating diabetes self-management education and support (DSMES) to specifically encourage conversations regarding beliefs that affect men's health and to allow modeling of alternative views and perspectives that allow for successful disease management to be framed as competence and strength. Given that the life expectancy for Black men in the US is 71, the investigators hypothesize that targeting men in earlier stages of type 2 diabetes (T2D) will assist greatly in facilitating healthy aging and improving diabetes-related health outcomes later in life. Based on the investigators previous work, the long-term goal of our research is to determine the most effective, practical, and sustainable approach to provide DSMES to older Black men. The objective is to examine the relative effectiveness, feasibility, and acceptability of a peer-leader DSMES intervention for Black men with T2D. To accomplish this, the investigators will engage in a developmental phase and a validation phase \[pilot randomized control trial (RCT)\]. The RCT will be conducted with 60 Black adult male residents of metro Detroit, Michigan. Participants will be randomized to a control group or the tailored peer-leader diabetes self-management support group (PLDSMS). All participants will receive DSME with a certified diabetes care and education specialists. Only participants randomized to the PLDSMS group will also receive an additional 6 weeks of DSMS led by the peer leaders. The investigators hypothesize that 1) participants in the PLDSMS group will have improved outcomes (A1c, blood pressure, weight, diabetes distress, self-management behaviors, etc.) over the control group, and 2) an evaluation of measures will confirm efficacy of the PLDSMS.