Benefit and Adherence of the Disease Management Program “Diabetes 2”: A Comparison of Turkish Immigrants and German Natives with Diabetes

Abstract

There is an ongoing debate about equity and equality in health care, and whether immigrants benefit equally from services as the non-immigrant population. The study focuses on benefits from and adherence to the diabetes mellitus type 2 (DM 2) disease management program (DMP) among Turkish immigrants in Germany. So far, it has not been researched whether this group benefits from enrollment in the DMP as well as diabetics from the non-immigrant population. Data on the non-immigrant sample (N = 702) stem from a survey among members of a German health insurance, the Turkish immigrant sample (N = 102) was recruited in the area of Hamburg. Identical questions in both surveys enable comparing major components. Regarding process quality, Turkish diabetics do not differ from the non-immigrant sample; moreover, they have significantly more often received documentation and diabetes training. In terms of outcome quality however, results display a greater benefit on behalf of the non-immigrant sample (e.g., blood parameters and body mass index), and they also met more of the DMP criteria. This underlines the need of diabetics with Turkish background for further education and information in order to become the empowered patient as is intended by the DMP as well as to prevent comorbidities.

Transcultural mediation programme in a paediatric hospital in France: qualitative and quantitative study of participants’ experience and impact on hospital costs

“…The high burden of chronic diseases—both communicable, such as HIV infection, and non-communicable, such as diabetes and kidney failure—is partially explained by socioeconomic factors 1–3. Immigrants face substantial delays in screening or in management after diagnosis, difficulties in access to care,4 by communication problems due to barriers that are both linguistic and cultural,5 6 and sometimes even by discrimination,7 8 which result in increased morbidity 3. To cope with these issues, many initiatives exist in health institutions, relying on language translators or cultural brokers 9 10.…”