Advancing DSME/S and COVID-19 Prevention and Protection Through "emPOWERed to Change" Program

African Americans (AA)/People of Color (POC) are disproportionately impacted by COVID-19 to an extent not observed in other racial/ethnic subgroups. People of color are uniquely affected because keeping diabetes under control - the best defense against COVID-19 - has become more difficult as the pandemic has disrupted medical care, exercise and healthy eating routines which are already well-known challenges for the African American community. Diabetes Self-Management Education and Support (DSMS/S) facilitates the knowledge, skills, and ability necessary for diabetes self-care as well as activities that assist a person in implementing and sustaining the behaviors needed to manage their condition on an ongoing basis. Now, given the implications of COVID-19 on the AA/POC diabetes community, it is imperative to enhance DSME/S with education about protection and prevention of COVID-19. To begin to solve this problem we will adapt and implement the \"emPOWERed to Change\" DSME/S program to provide enhanced type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) education with an additional emphasis on COVID-19 protection and prevention. This study will employ Community Based Participatory Research methods and will be conducted virtually in the community setting. The proposed hypothesis, based on the Health Belief Model (HBM) and the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB), is: African Americans (AA)/People of Color (POC) in Los Angeles County with type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) randomized to participate in the \"emPOWERed to Change\" program (N=48) are more likely to demonstrate sustained glycemic control, increase in knowledge and skills related behaviors, and risk factors associated with T2DM and SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19) and increased compliance with prevention, and vaccination as compared to those who are randomized to usual care (N=48) in this 12 week program. We propose a randomized control study design among 96 participants with 48 assigned to an intervention group and 48 assigned to a control group. This study will also explore the experience of the participants\' appraisal of knowledge and skills acquisition for DSME/S to maintain T2DM control, reduce complications, and SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19) prevention and protection. The ultimate goal is to design prospective larger behavioral studies (SuRe first or R21) with a multi-centered intervention with other RTRN institutions to demonstrate the applicability of this approach specifically focusing on the AA/POC community.