Collaborative Design Process to Develop a Health Education Intervention: The Ööqalat’ Qa’tsit Yesni Curriculum

Background: The growing body of evidence showing type 2 diabetes (T2D) as a potential risk factor for certain cancers supports the need to make cancer education a component of diabetes care efforts. This need is especially important for Indigenous populations who experience disproportionate high rates of T2D. Purpose and Objective: The purpose of this article is to describe the development process of the health education curriculum and methods used to pilot the curriculum. The primary objective of the Ööqalat’ Qa’tsit Yesni (Living a Strong Life) Curriculum is to increase participant knowledge of cancer and T2D, including recommended prevention, management, and early-\ detection practices. Methods: Guided by community-based participatory research principles and the Community Health Workers Praxis and Patient Health Behavior Framework, a tribal–university workgroup steered each stage of the project, including curriculum development, recruitment, evaluation strategies and dissemination plans. A purposeful sampling strategy will be used to recruit participants. Inclusion criteria include: having diagnosed T2D or pre-diabetes, and males and females between the ages of 18 to 75 years. A traditional pretest–post-test design will be used to assess participant knowledge. Results will be described in a future publication. Conclusions: The Ööqalat’ Qa’tsit Yesni project is driven by a community-based participatory research tribal–university partnership. This collaborative design process resulted in a health education curriculum, which could contribute to community-engaged health promotion efforts in Indigenous communities.