Salud Latina: feasibility of a synchronous online chat for latinos at risk for type 2 diabetes

ABSTRACT

This study examined the feasibility of Salud Latina, a weekly synchronous online chat intervention, aimed at engaging Latinos in diabetes prevention conversations. Participants were Latino English- and Spanish-speaking individuals. Salud Latina comprised of six synchronous weekly online chats moderated by bilingual Latina moderators trained in diabetes and online engagement. Online chats used open-ended questions. We assessed feasibility, acceptability, and satisfaction of the intervention and qualitatively analyzed the chats to identify barriers and facilitators to healthy behaviors and identify types of support exchanged. Participants (N = 20) were mostly female and English/Spanish bilingual and 80% completed at least four chats. Salud Latina was acceptable, feasible and highly satisfactory. Four themes were identified: (1) barriers to engaging in healthy behaviors, (2) facilitators of healthy behaviors, (3) Salud Latina provides a community of support, and (4) the need to build a Latino culture of health. Participants recognized the importance of engaging in healthy behaviors to prevent or delay T2D. Findings provide insight in how a synchronous online chat intervention could be used to build a social media community within a Latino population to support healthy behaviors. Future research could explore combining synchronous online chats with in-person community or family-level interventions.

KEYWORDS:

• Online community
• Latino
• social media
• diabetes prevention
• social support

Acknowledgments

Thank you to Sijia Qian and Dr. Helene Shugart for their help with this project.

Author contributions

BRG recruited participants, organized intervention delivery, analyzed the data, and contributed to manuscript development. MLL conceptualized the study, analyzed data, and contributed to manuscript development. SEW analyzed data and contributed to manuscript development. MHG and MF delivered the intervention and edited the manuscript. YS conceptualized the study and contributed to manuscript development.

Availability of data

Please reach out to study team.

Compliance with ethical standards

This study was approved by the University of Utah IRB, protocol # 00110926.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

This study was funded by Driving Out Diabetes, a Larry H. Miller Family Wellness Initiative. Sarah E. Wawrzynski is supported by the National Institute of Nursing Research of the National Institutes of Health under Award Number F31NR018987. The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the National Institutes of Health.