NSG 170: Diabetes, Non-Profits, and Healthcare in the USA

This report examines the significant role of non-profit organizations in addressing diabetes in the USA. The paper begins by defining diabetes mellitus, differentiating between Type 1 and Type 2 diabetes, and outlining the associated risk factors and symptoms. It then focuses on the contributions of specific organizations, such as the Diatribe Foundation, highlighting their efforts in patient support, awareness campaigns, and advocacy for improved healthcare access and affordability. The report also explores the American Association for Diabetes Educators (AADE), emphasizing its role in providing guidelines for healthcare professionals, promoting equitable care, and enhancing diabetes management through education and online resources. Furthermore, the report discusses the impact of healthcare disparities and cultural factors on the prevalence of diabetes, particularly within minority communities, and concludes by underscoring the vital contributions of non-profit organizations in improving care, providing equal access, and reducing the disease's impact. The paper references peer-reviewed articles and the course textbook to support its findings.

Running head: NON-PROFIT ORGANIZATION FOR DIABEETS IN USA
NON-PROFIT ORGANIZATION FOR DIABETES IN USA
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

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NON-PROFIT ORGANIZATION FOR DIABETES IN USA
Introduction
Diabetes is most common among other diseases in the USA. It is one of the six causes of
mortality in the country (Gregg et al., 2014). Government, many associations are concerned to
prevent this illness. Among these, non-profit organizations are more effective in this situation. In
this article, it gives detailed description of the disease. After that, the paper discusses the role of
non-profit organizations in the Diatribe foundation their action and the evaluation of non-profit
institutions serving the healthcare system. Finally, this article describes the prevalence of disease
in the USA.
Description of the disease
Diabetes mellitus, which is commonly known as diabetes, is a metabolic disorder that is
caused by increased sugar level in blood. The pancreas produces insulin hormone that uses sugar
and fat from food and provides energy to other cells of the body. The disease arises when the
pancreas does not produce sufficient amount of insulin or no insulin or when the body does not
respond appropriately to the insulin. There are two main types of diabetes- type 1-diabetes and
type 2-diabetes. Type 1-diabetes is an autoimmune disorder that is caused by autoimmune
destruction of pancreatic β cells by CD4+ and CD8+ T cells and macrophages that are not able to
produce insulin (Katsarou et al., 2017). Type 2-diabetes is characterized by decreased insulin
production because of the dysfunction of pancreatic β cells and insulin resistance. Gestational
diabetes is another type of diabetes that is caused by hormonal changes in women during
pregnancy (DeFronzo et al., 2015). The risk factors of two types of diabetes include family
history, age, weight, environmental factor, presence of autoantibodies, high blood sugar level.
Common signs and symptoms that are seen in the diabetic patient have increased dehydration,

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fatigue, frequent urination and presence of ketones in urine, extreme appetite, blurry vision,
infections, cuts or wounds that take time to heal.
The non-profit organization supports the patient
Many non-profit institutions are serving people with diabetes for many years. Among
these, one of the organizations is the diatribe Foundation. This organization aims to support the
people, who have an illness from diabetes, to live happy and well. Its mission is to help people to
understand this complex disease and provide possible care to them. They have an online
publication, namely Diatribe, that helps to increase awareness among ordinary people. The
foundation treats their reader as regular people, not as “patients”. They also try to reach all kinds
of people irrespective of medical or scientific background. This group hopes to enhance the
people lives by improving tools and resources in their articles. The cost of diabetes treatment in
the USA is very high. That’s why the Diatribe is concerned and finding a different way to
improve this problem. Diatribe frequently asks the FDA to have a conversation with these
patients to solve this matter. Diatribe organized an FDA-patient dialogue in November 2014 in
National Diabetes Month to circulate consciousness of this disease. This foundation also
arranges different discussion with patients, investors or health care professionals that can make
necessary changes to offer healthy life to the patients. In this event, various topics are conversed,
such as the future of diabetes care and opportunities presented by new technology and digital
tools (The Diatribe Foundation, 2020).
The non-profit organization that provides practice rules to the providers
A non-profit informational organization that provides guidelines to the health care
professionals to enhance care and decrease complications is American Association for Diabetes

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NON-PROFIT ORGANIZATION FOR DIABETES IN USA
Educators. AADE aims to offer equal health system care to all individuals. It focuses on the best
result on diabetes through the integration of diabetes care and clinical management, education
and prevention. The quality of diabetes prevention and self-care management education should
be accessible to all individuals. This education and support system must go through novelty to
improve its impact. This organization has an online system, namely the AADE system that
allows collecting and tracking patients behaviour changes, clinical conditions, and treatments. It
also supports the administration of online patient self-assessments and follow-ups. They also
follow legislation that supports the work of diabetes treatment, emphasizes the clinical
importance of education and removes the obstacle of self-managing. This institution offers health
care providers who abide by the state and federal laws to treat people in the provision of diabetes
care and management. Actually, this foundation possesses many sections that ultimately help to
improve diabetes care and clinical management. Its primary focus is to give equal care to all
individuals. This organization provides better policy to the care-givers than other institutions in
terms of patient care, management (Association of Diabetes Care and Education Specialists,
2020).
Impact of healthcare disparities or cultural factors on the population experiencing
this illness
In the USA, racial discrimination is a concerning issue, among other factors. The
ethnicity differences increase the risk of diabetes in the USA people more prevalently. The
discrepancy between minor and whites and deprivation from proper care and treatment lead to
experience this disease frequently. Therefore, they do not get regular health care and adequate
health access to reduce the chances of this disorder. The type of food consumption may lead to
the experience of this disease. Since this country is very much technology-based, their cultural

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NON-PROFIT ORGANIZATION FOR DIABETES IN USA
activities, lifestyles differ from others and are prone to illness like hypertension which is another
reason for developing this disease among those populations. Socio-economic is another factor
that increases the risk of diabetes. The research suggested that Latino and African American
community are economically less stable compared to others. The cost of this treatment is very
high, and it is one of the six causes of morbidity in the USA. This factor relates to racism as the
social discrepancy is a rising issue, and it hampers from not getting the proper treatment.
Cultural beliefs are another issue that increases the chances of this disorder. The research
reported that Hispanic cultural individual has a perception of developing diabetes by increased
stress (Thompson et al., 2015).
Conclusion
From the above discussion, it can be concluded that non-profit organizations have a
significant role in providing proper care, equal access to all individuals, thus reducing the
predisposition of the disease. The Diatribe Foundation in the USA helps people to get access to
adequate care and treatment by giving education or system. The AADE is such kind of
organization that offers appropriate rules to the health care providers to support the care system.
There is an increased prevalence of developing this disease because of a social discrepancy
between minor and whites, also other cultural factors such as food habit, cultural beliefs etc.

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NON-PROFIT ORGANIZATION FOR DIABETES IN USA
Reference
Association of Diabetes Care and Education Specialists. (2020). Association of Diabetes Care &
Education Specialists. Retrieved 28 February 2020, from
https://www.diabeteseducator.org/
DeFronzo, R. A., Ferrannini, E., Groop, L., Henry, R. R., Herman, W. H., Holst, J. J., ... &
Simonson, D. C. (2015). Type 2 diabetes mellitus. Nature reviews Disease primers, 1(1),
1-22.
Gregg, E. W., Zhuo, X., Cheng, Y. J., Albright, A. L., Narayan, K. V., & Thompson, T. J.
(2014). Trends in lifetime risk and years of life lost due to diabetes in the USA, 1985–
2011: a modelling study. The lancet Diabetes & endocrinology, 2(11), 867-874.
Katsarou, A., Gudbjörnsdottir, S., Rawshani, A., Dabelea, D., Bonifacio, E., Anderson, B. J., ...
& Lernmark, Å. (2017). Type 1 diabetes mellitus. Nature reviews Disease primers, 3(1),
1-17.
The Diatribe Foundation. (2020). diaTribe | Making Sense of Diabetes. Retrieved 28 February
2020, from https://diatribe.org/
Thompson, V. L. S., Johnson-Jennings, M., Baumann, A. A., & Proctor, E. (2015). Peer
Reviewed: Use of Culturally Focused Theoretical Frameworks for Adapting Diabetes
Prevention Programs: A Qualitative Review. Preventing chronic disease, 12.