Cardio-metabolic Diseases in Immigrants and Ethnic Minorities: From Epidemiology to New Prevention Strategies

Diabetes mellitus has an unequal impact globally, with 80% of cases occurring in low- and middle-income countries. In particular, social determinants of health, such as education, employment, and living conditions, play a significant role in the unequal impact of diabetes. On the other hand, cultural aspects such as education on healthy behaviors, diet, adherence to drug therapy, self-monitoring of blood glucose, and physical activity, are essential for effective diabetes management. Finally, beliefs about the disease, communication difficulties, limited educational backgrounds, and the inability to understand educational materials and read food labels due to language barriers can pose obstacles to achieving adequate disease awareness and control among ethnic minorities. Large randomized clinical trials conducted over the past decade have examined the effectiveness of behavioral interventions to address these influences among diverse ethnic minorities. These studies, mainly conducted on specific ethnic groups living in the US such as Afro-American and Hispanic populations, reported improvements in glycosylated hemoglobin A1c control at 3- and at 6-months post intervention compared with control groups who received 'usual care', being sustained to a lesser extent at 12- and 24-months post intervention. In Europe, where diabetes disproportionately affects adult populations from ethnic minorities, with higher disease risk and complication and mortality rates compared to European host populations, studies on culturally sensitive diabetes self-management education and support are limited, and their effectiveness remains uncertain. The multicenter randomized clinical trial (DiabEthic trial) was therefore designed to compare the effectiveness of culture-sensitive intervention to that of a usual-care approach to promote diabetes care and to improve compliance to therapeutic protocols in first-generation immigrants with type 2 diabetes. To best transfer this experience into clinical practice, personalized cultural approaches to type 2 diabetes were developed with the support of representatives of ethnic communities living in Italy and the participation of specific cultural mediators. Unlike previous studies, this multicenter study focuses on the diversely represented ethnic communities in different parts of Italy.