Sugar: Review the Authors of the Report,

¶ … Sugar": Review

The authors of the report, Carthton et al., are very well qualified to write this report on diabetes. This team not only has the medical knowledge necessary to write the report, but they have take an interdisciplinary stance in the investigation, which helps them analyze the medical, social and psychological factors involved in their diabetes self-management study (Carthron et al., 2009).

The report title is not very clear. This title does not-specify that the team is investigating how primary-care duties impact a grandmother's self-management (Carthron et al., 2009).

The abstract clearly outlines the purpose for the study and the methods used to obtain data. The paper also outlines the study's findings. They do not, however, offer clear recommendations for medical providers or social workers to work more effectively with this population (Carthron et al., 2009).

The purpose of the research is to investigate how the responsibilities of caregiving affect a grandmother's self-care agency in terms of managing her diabetes (Carthron et al., 2009).

5. The research question was whether groups of caregivers would differ from non-caregivers in their overall self-care agency. The hypothesis was that grandmothers with more significant caregiving responsibilities would have lower self-care agency (Carthron et al., 2009).

6. The importance of this research lies in the fact that many older African-American women with diabetes take on caretaking responsibilities for their grandchildren. It is important to determine the extent to which this affects individual health in order to develop systems that can prevent ongoing issues with health and quality of life (Carthron et al., 2009).

7. The theoretical basis for this study is that as grandmothers fulfill caretaking responsibilities the individuals may lack both time and financial resources to properly fulfill their own diabetes self-care needs. This theory and the research are very well reasoned because the rates of diabetes are higher in African-American women. Diabetes self-care requires lifestyles changes that many women may not make if they do not have the time and financial resources to do so. Being a primary caregiver for young children may create responsibilities and stressors that impede self-care (Carthron et al., 2009).

8. This study recruited participants based on very specific criteria. Participants had to be 1) African-American females with type two diabetes 3) live in the State of Arkansas, 4) speak English, and 5) have the cognitive abilities to participate in the study. The study had a caregiver group and a non-caregiver group to help the researchers compare the habits of caregivers to those on non-caregivers. The participants were then asked to complete a questionnaire regarding their self-care habits. The researchers used the responses from this questionnaire to perform a statistical analysis on the differences in the responses of the two separate study groups. Findings showed that the care-giver group had statistically significant and lower rates of self-monitoring their blood glucose levels and eating a healthy diet after the onset of child-caring responsibilities. The group of participants who did not have childcare responsibilities ate a healthier diet and practiced blood glucose self-monitoring more frequently (Carthron et al., 2009).

9. This study did an excellent job of create a study group and a control group. The study also gathered important data regarding the participants' self-care activities. The study did, however, rely heavily on self-reported data by submitting a questionnaire only to the study participants. Gathering data from family members about their observations of self-care could be an important addition to this study. In addition a medical component should be added to assess participant health and nutrition instead of relying completely on self-reported information from participants (Carthron et al., 2009).