Puerto Rico,
You lovely island . . .
Island of tropical breezes.
Always the pineapples growing,
Always the coffee blossoms blowing . . .
Lyrics from the song ”America” from West Side Story
And I would add: The rates of type 2 diabetes rising. . .
I just returned from leading a Conversation Map training session in beautiful San Juan, Puerto Rico.
Puerto Rico is a lovely place with such warm, friendly people (and climate!), you would think one wouldn’t have to worry about chronic diseases such as type 2 diabetes here. But as I found out from the educators attending the session, rates of type 2 diabetes in Puerto Rico are the highest among all 50 United States, D.C., Guam, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands, with an age-adjusted incidence of 12.8 persons per 1,000 population having the disease.
So what are Puerto Rico’s challenges? Are they any different from those that we face in the states? The common answers voiced by the educators were too much food and too little activity. The extremely high percentage of overweight and obese children and adolescents is also a pressing concern.
I left the training session confident that the Puerto Rican educators wanted to provide the best possible care and education for their patients, and were now equipped with the diabetes Conversation Map tools, which should make that difficult job of providing education a little easier.
Thank you to all of the wonderful educators in Puerto Rico! I hope to visit your island again soon, and see those high rates of diabetes roll out with the lovely azure blue tide.
Te hablo luego!
Cathy