National diabetes study begins with good public response

In just an hour since the national diabetes and kidney disease study began yesterday at the Department of Public Health, at least 20 individuals had already completed participation and the number continued to grow as the hours went by.

People started lining up long before yesterday’s opening schedule of 10am.

An hour later, people were still arriving to sign up for the study that aims to find the cause of kidney disease and diabetes.

Starting today, the temporary clinic for the research study at the new DPH building in Garapan will open at 8am and close at 2pm.

Dr. Robert Hanson of the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases said they would like to get as many participants as possible during the nine days that they will be holding the research.

“It’s more than we expected,” Hanson said of the number of participants at the opening hours of the study.

The research team expects to have 500 to 1,000 participants, who will receive a one-time payment of $25.

“People who don’t have diabetes have to fast before coming in here; those who have diabetes don’t have to fast,” Hanson told Saipan Tribune.

Hanson said the study aims to find the genetic disposition for kidney disease and diabetes and knowing the cause of these diseases will help prevent and treat them better than what is being done right now.

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.

Hanson, who is based in Phoenix, is accompanied by representatives from the Guam-based Institute for Disease Prevention and Research led by Jenny Duenas to conduct the study, with the help of DPH staff.

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

Those who are qualified to participate in the study are individuals who are at least 18 years old, not pregnant, and at least 50 percent Chamorro, Carolinian, other Micronesian, or Filipino.

Qualified individuals are 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.

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.

Frances Demapan and Chailang Palacios, of the Hinemlo’ Familia, said they’re trying to help recruit participants for the study.