Date of Conferral

2017

Degree

Ph.D.

School

Health Services

Advisor

Magdeline Aagard

Abstract

Type 2 diabetes has more than doubled in the past decade among Black Americans. Researchers have suggested that Black Seventh-day Adventists, who follow a plant-based diet, are concerned about preventing the complications from this disease. The purpose of this qualitative ethnographic study was to explore the chance and perceptions of complications from type 2 diabetes among 10 purposefully sampled Black Seventh-day Adventists. The health belief model (HBM) served as the conceptual framework. Two constructs, education and income, were chosen for this study. Education was chosen to increase understanding about the chronic nature of the disease, and income was chosen because it is not inexpensive to maintain a plant-based diet as someone with type 2 diabetes. Data were collected through in-depth semi-structured interviews which were inductively coded and then categorized around emerging themes. The key finding of this study revealed that these 10 participants relied on the Adventist lifestyle as an antidote to the complications of type 2 diabetes. The implications for positive social change include increased awareness and education of complications, and decreased risk for chances of complications among informants in this study.

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