Mapping diabetes burden by school-district for school-based diabetes prevention interventions in selected cities in Michigan, USA

To decrease diabetes morbidity and mortality rates, early interventions are needed to change lifestyles that are often cemented early, making school-based interventions important. However, with limited resources and lack of within-county diabetes data, it is difficult to determine which local areas require intervention. To identify at-risk school districts, this study mapped diabetes prevalence and related deaths by school district using geographic information systems (GIS). The 2010-2014 records of diabetes-related deaths were identified for 13 cities in Michigan, USA. Diabetes prevalence was estimated using the weighted average of population by school district from the '500 Cities Project' of the Centres of Disease Control and prevention (CDC). Prevalence and mortality rates were mapped by school district and the correlation between diabetes prevalence and mortality rate analysed using the Spearman's rank correlation. Years of potential life lost (YPLL) were calculated using a 75-year endpoint. The result indicated there were geographic variations in diabetes prevalence, mortality and YPLL across Michigan. Most census tracts in the cities of Detroit, Flint and downtown Grand Rapids had higher diabetes prevalence and mortality rate with rs (628)=0.52, P<0.005. School districts with high mortality rates also had high prevalence with rs (13)=0.72, P=0.002. Flint City School District showed a higher rate of diabetes prevalence, death and YPLL than others and should thus be considered a priority for diabetes prevention interventions. Using school districts as the geographic spatial unit of analysis, we identified local variation in diabetes burden for targeting school-based diabetes prevention interventions.