The Development and Delivery of a Diabetes Service-Learning Course for Community-Based Self-Management Education

Service-learning programs for health profession students both engage students and promote health literacy in the community. This paper describes the development and delivery of a service-learning course designed to enhance diabetes literacy and improve outcomes among a medically underserved population. The didactic component of the course introduced students to topics such as health literacy, health education techniques, and diabetes pathophysiology, prevention, and treatment. Subsequently, students designed and delivered community diabetes education classes at a free clinic. Both diabetes knowledge and self-efficacy scores improved for community members and student educators. A subset of community members also showed a reduced body mass index at a 6-month follow-up. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the course transitioned to an online format in its final semester, allowing a comparison between students who taught in-person classes versus those who conducted classes virtually. Only those students who provided in-person education demonstrated significant improvements in self-efficacy, highlighting the value of direct community engagement. This course model demonstrates that student-led education at rural clinics can serve as a cost-effective and sustainable strategy to enhance rural health literacy while offering meaningful experiential learning opportunities.