Diabetes exacts a significant burden on Guam's people. Over the past decades, diabetes has risen in prevalence and currently is the fourth leading cause of mortality and morbidity on the island.1 Diabetes also directly contributes to two of the top three causes of death on Guam—namely, heart disease and stroke. The health burden from this chronic and disabling condition is compounded by the economic costs of diabetes treatment and care and the impaired quality of life that results from uncontrolled diabetes. Thus, the prevention and control of diabetes is a major public health priority for Guam.
The Guam Department of Public Health and Social Services (DPHSS) is the designated lead agency responsible for addressing the problem of diabetes. In recent years, the DPHSS Diabetes Prevention and Control Program initiated partnerships with other stakeholders in the community to create a community Diabetes Control Coalition that would oversee and guide the creation of a Comprehensive Diabetes Control Plan for the island.
The coalition recognized the importance of mapping out existing diabetes prevention and control resources within the island to identify needs and service gaps, and to assess if existing services are meeting accepted standards of practice. The importance of obtaining feedback from the end-users of the services — diabetes patients — was deemed essential to provide a more comprehensive picture regarding the availability and utilization of public health and clinical services to prevent or control diabetes.
This report contains the results of a survey to determine diabetes patients' perceptions of the availability and adequacy of preventive and clinical services to control diabetes. While primarily intended as a planning tool for Guam's Diabetes Prevention and Control Program, the survey provides useful feedback to assist diabetes service providers, community advocates and diabetes patients and their families in improving the quality of diabetes services on Guam.