Contact: Will Sansom
Phone: (210) 567-2579
E-mail: sansom@uthscsa.edu

Image courtesy of Social and Health Research Center
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“Leticia” has been on insulin since she was 8. Now, at age 12, she is already a veteran of injections and finger pricks. She is tired of the fatigue and drowsiness she often feels. She asks herself why she can’t be more active like her other classmates.

Unbelievably, at such a tender age, Leticia is already suffering from type 2 diabetes.

Earlier this month, 3,400 third- through fifth-graders in the Laredo and United Independent School Districts began taking part in a three-year, school-based diabetes prevention program called “Proyecto Bienestar-Laredo” (the Laredo Well-Being Project). The program, funded by $5 million from the National Institutes of Health and already tested successfully in San Antonio schools, is offered by The University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio and the Social and Health Research Center in San Antonio in conjunction with the Laredo and United school districts, the Laredo Health Department and U.T. San Antonio.

“This is the second-largest school-based diabetes prevention program in the country, and our goal is to substantially reduce type 2 diabetes among Laredo’s children,” said lead investigator Roberto P. Trevino, M.D., a pediatrics faculty member at the Health Science Center and director of the Social and Health Research Center. “By participating in Proyecto Bienestar-Laredo, children receive a health screening and benefit from group interventions – a measurable physical activity program, food service interventions to make cafeteria choices healthier, an after-school health club to teach positive alternatives to snacking and other behaviors, and parental education about what it takes for this same program to be followed at home.”

The San Antonio Bienestar project served as the model for the Laredo project, and Dr. Trevino and colleagues hope to expand to many more U.S. cities. Laredo is the current focus.

Type 2 diabetes is striking far too many Leticias in Laredo schools. A 2004 study found a 7.5 percent rate of pre-diabetes among fourth-graders in the Laredo and United school districts. That’s one in every 14 children. The rate of obesity, a strong co-factor in the development of type 2 diabetes, is 27 percent in Mexican-American children across Texas, but it is an alarming 42 percent in Laredo children surveyed.

“What students such as Leticia have in their favor is their youth,” said Dan Hale, M.D., professor of pediatrics at the Health Science Center and Proyecto Bienestar-Laredo co-investigator. “If they get started right now with proper diet and exercise, they can prevent, or at least delay, the onset of type 2 diabetes.”

The San Antonio Bienestar study, conducted among 1,200 low-income, Mexican-American fourth-graders in 13 San Antonio elementary schools, resulted in a dramatic drop in blood sugar levels and also decreased dietary fat. The program increased children’s fitness levels and dietary fiber intake. Findings of that study were published in the Sept. 6, 2004, issue of a major U.S. journal, . The study included the Health Science Center, the Social and Health Research Center, U.T. San Antonio, the San Antonio ISD and the Texas Diabetes Institute, which is a facility of the University Health System in San Antonio.

“The Bienestar intervention cost only $9 per student,” Dr. Trevino said. “That’s very low, considering that the decrease, if maintained for several years, might be enough to save a child from going blind.” By comparison, the American Diabetes Association estimates that the cost to treat one person with type 2 diabetes, with all its complications such as lost eyesight, limb amputation and cardiovascular disease, can run as high as $13,000 per year.

The NIH’s sponsorship of Proyecto Bienestar-Laredo represents the desire to see the model eventually reach children in schools throughout the United States, said Robert Villarreal, M.D., professor of family and community medicine at the Health Science Center and co-investigator on the Laredo project. A goal is to study the sustainability of the Bienestar model by school districts.

McGraw-Hill Inc. has offered invaluable assistance with Bienestar educational materials.

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The University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio is the leading research institution in South Texas and one of the major health sciences universities in the world. With an operating budget of $500 million, the Health Science Center is the chief catalyst for the $14 billion biosciences and health care industry, the leading sector in San Antonio’s economy. The Health Science Center has had an estimated $34 billion impact on the region since inception and has expanded to six campuses in San Antonio, Laredo, Harlingen and Edinburg. More than 20,500 graduates (physicians, dentists, nurses, scientists and allied health professionals) serve in their fields, including many in Texas. Health Science Center faculty are international leaders in cancer, cardiovascular disease, diabetes, aging, stroke prevention, kidney disease, orthopaedics, research imaging, transplant surgery, pain management, genetics, nursing, allied health, dentistry and many other fields. For more information, click on www.uthscsa.edu.