National Research Network to Implement, Evaluate Volunteer Mentoring Program

The AAFP's National Research Network, or NRN, is slated to receive a $805,000 research evaluation grant for its plans to adapt a successful peer mentoring program for patients with diabetes.

The 32-month NRN project is one of eight proposals slated to receive a research evaluation grant from the AAFP Foundation's Peers for Progress program. Peers for Progress is designed to establish or extend the evidence base for peer support as a core component of diabetes care around the world.

In addition to the eight research evaluation grants, Peers for Progress awarded six $100,000 pilot evaluation grants. The grants will support research designed to evaluate, demonstrate and promote the role of peer mentoring for patients with diabetes in nine countries on six continents. Overall, the program will distribute $7 million during a 32-month period to the 14 research projects. The grants are available as a result of a gift from the Eli Lilly and Co. Foundation Inc.

The NRN will base its project on the Carpeta Roja project in Los Angeles, which uses community workers to help mentor patients with diabetes about the disease. Although the Carpeta Roja project is in a predominantly uninsured Hispanic population in Los Angeles, the NRN plans to adapt it to an insured, middle-class patient population in San Antonio.

According to Debbie Graham, associate research director for the NRN, the Carpeta Roja project resulted in an increase in the number of patients who reported having at least two hemoglobin A1c tests per year from 41 percent to 80 percent. Another positive finding was that, with mentoring, patients who wrote down results or asked for a copy of results from recommended tests increased from 10 percent to 80 percent.

Graham said researchers would analyze outcomes from the Carpeta Roja project before revising it for the San Antonio project.

One revision already decided on is that the NRN will recruit patients in San Antonio's WellMed Medical Group who have their diabetes under control to serve as mentors. These patients will be asked to volunteer to mentor more than 300 other patients with diabetes in the WellMed system who need help managing their disease.

According to Graham, the WellMed patients and their mentors will be matched based on factors such as gender and age. The mentors have learned how to manage diabetes and they can support other patients on a person-to-person basis, said Graham.

NRN researchers will monitor the mentored patients' clinical measures, including blood pressure readings, LDL cholesterol levels and hemoglobin A1c test results. They then will analyze overall health outcomes, including adoption of self-management behaviors and quality-of-life indicators. The program also will evaluate whether the mentors improve their own health and lifestyles as a result of participating in the project.