Prevalence of depression is high among individuals with type 2 diabetes (T2D). The objective of the current study was to identify the socio-demographic, psychosocial, cultural, and clinical risk factors that predispose to depression, and resources that protect from depression among low income Latinos with T2D. Participants (N = 211) were interviewed in their homes upon enrollment. Multivariate logistic regression was used to identify factors associated with depressive symptoms based on a score of ≥21 on the Center for Epidemiological Studies Depression scale. Lower household income, interference of diabetes with daily activities, and more T2D clinical symptoms were associated with depression risk in the multivariate analyses. At each level of food insecurity the risk of depression was lower the higher the level of social support (P < 0.05). Findings suggest that social support buffers against the negative influence of household food insecurity on depression risk. A comprehensive approach is necessary to address the mental health needs of low income Latinos with T2D.

Racial/ethnic minorities are disproportionately affected by barriers to health care access and utilization. The primary objective was to test for an independent association between household food insecurity and health care access/utilization. In this cross-sectional survey, 211 Latinos (predominantly, Puerto-Ricans) with type 2 diabetes (T2D) were interviewed at their homes. Factor analyses identified four barriers for health care access/utilization: enabling factor, doctor access, medication access and forgetfulness. Multivariate logistic regression models examined the association between each of the barrier factors and food insecurity controlling for sociodemographic, cultural, psychosocial, and diabetes self-care variables. Higher food insecurity score was a risk factor for experiencing enabling factor (OR = 1.46; 95% CI = 1.17–1.82), medication access (OR = 1.26; 95 CI% = 1.06–1.50), and forgetfulness (OR = 1.22; 95 CI% = 1.04–1.43) barriers. Higher diabetes management self-efficacy was protective against all four barriers. Other variables associated with one or more barriers were health insurance, perceived health, depression, blood glucose, age and education. Findings suggest that addressing barriers such as food insecurity, low self-efficacy, lack of health insurance, and depression could potentially result in better health care access and utilization among low income Puerto-Ricans with T2D.

The objective of this study was to identify demographic, socio-economic, acculturation, lifestyle, sleeping pattern, and biomedical determinants of fasting plasma glucose (FPG) and glycosylated hemoglobin (HbA1c), among Latinos with type 2 diabetes (T2D

Culturally tailored interventions led by CHWs could increase food label use. Also, CHW-delivered food label education may lead to better diet quality and improve glycemic control among Latinos with type 2 diabetes.