Up to 1,000 needed in nat’l diabetes study starting Monday

A national health study will begin at the Commonwealth Health Center on Monday, with up to a thousand participants needed to help find the cause of kidney diseases and diabetes, according to Dr. Jeff Curtis of the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases.

Curtis, who is in Guam, said yesterday the health team will start seeing participants at 10am at the new CHC building on Monday.

The study will be conducted on April 13, 14, 15, 18, 20 and 21 at CHC, and at St. Jude’s Renal Center at the back of Saipan Health Clinic on April 16 and 17.

“If the responses are overwhelming, people may be asked to come back for an appointment,” Curtis said in a phone interview.

Leading the Saipan study are Dr. Robert Hanson of NIDDKD and Jenny Duenas of the Micronesian Institute for Disease Prevention and Research, said Curtis.

Qualified to participate are those who are at least 18 years old, not pregnant, and at least 50 percent Chamorro, Carolinian, other Micronesian, or Filipino.

If not a diabetic or a dialysis patient, participants must fast for eight hours. Only water is allowed.

If they qualify, these individuals will be asked to participate in a 20- to 30-minute interview, and undergo blood pressure measurement and blood and urine tests for diabetes and kidney disease.

Participants will receive a one-time payment of $25.

“We hope to be able to understand better what causes kidney disease in people with diabetes and by understanding what causes it, we can prevent and treat it better than we can now,” Curtis said.

The CNMI has been found to have the third largest number of diabetes cases after Pima Indians and Nauru. Based on 2002 statistics, there are over 3,000 known diabetes patients in the CNMI, mostly Chamorros and Carolinians, and other Pacific islanders.

“It’s possible that the process of developing kidney disease and diabetes is different among ethnicities, like Chamorros, Carolinians, Micronesians and Filipinos. We believe it’s important enough for the people here to have this study,” Curtis added.

Dr. Richard Brostrom, medical director for public health, said the CNMI Department of Public Health granted final approval on the conduct of the study on Saipan.

“The decision was made last week [Friday] after an excellent presentation by Dr. Curtis,” Brostrom told Saipan Tribune. “Our job is to make sure patient confidentiality is protected and that the family has consent. Both of these were assured by Dr. Curtis.”

The study is sponsored by the National Institutes of Health and MIDPR, in collaboration with the CNMI Diabetes Coalition, Club Hinemlo-ta, Substance Abuse Prevention Coalition, and Hinemlo’ Familia Org.

In Guam, at least 1,800 individuals took part in the same study.
[B] CONTACT INFO[/B]

* CHC Hemodialysis: (670) 236-8303/04
* St. Jude’s Renal Center: (670) 234-2905
* MIDPR office In Guam: (671) 632-7230/34 or (671) 689-7230.