Benefits of an Intervention to Enhance Self-Efficacy for Diabetes Care in Homeless Shelter Residents

Benefits of an Intervention to Enhance Self-Efficacy for Diabetes Care in Homeless Shelter Residents

Presenter(s)

Maggie Hofner, Samantha Jordan, Ella Lamb, Emma Petraglia, Mia Venanzi

Comments

11:20-12:00, Kennedy Union 211

Description

Despite a great need for healthcare, unhoused individuals encounter significant barriers to utilizing public healthcare. Given the inequities in access to healthcare, accompanied by disabilities and health risks associated with homelessness, self-efficacy for self-care is particularly critical. Because of barriers associated with the system (e.g. lack of healthcare insurance), homelessness (e.g., lack of transportation), and the healthcare system (e.g., stigmatizing attitudes) encountered by unhoused people in attempts to access public healthcare, it is necessary to provide (and evaluate) self-care interventions on site (e.g., in homeless shelters). The prevention/management of diabetes is one of many problems among unhoused individuals. Driven by self-efficacy theory and the health psychology knowledge based on diabetes risks, this study examines the benefits of an intervention designed to enhance self-efficacy for the prevention/management of diabetes among residents at the St. Vincent de Paul Gateway Shelter for Men (Dayton, Ohio). The intervention is implemented by supervised undergraduate students within a long-standing participatory community action research project for homeless shelters. The primary purpose of the research is to examine the hypothesis that the intervention will lead to improvements in self-efficacy for prevention/management of diabetes. It is also hypothesized that the intervention will be (a) approximately equal in effectiveness for residents with disabilities versus those without disabilities and (b) approximately equal in effectiveness for residents with diabetes versus those with pre-diabetes. The Self-Efficacy for Diabetes Management Scale, which includes Likert-like items and prompts to collect qualitative data, is used to assess pre- to post-intervention changes in self-efficacy. The study uses a multifactorial design with two between-subject factors (i.e., disability versus non-disability status and diabetes versus pre-diabetes status) and one within-subjects factor (pre- versus post-intervention). A secondary purpose is to examine the psychometric properties of the new measure (Self-Efficacy for Diabetes Management Scale).

Publication Date

4-23-2025

Project Designation

Course Project - PSY 490 P3

Primary Advisor

Roger N. Reeb

Primary Advisor's Department

Psychology

Keywords

Stander Symposium, College of Arts and Sciences

Institutional Learning Goals

Community

Benefits of an Intervention to Enhance Self-Efficacy for Diabetes Care in Homeless Shelter Residents

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