| The Diabetes Coalition has grown over the years in response to the community's need to improve Diabetic education, screenings, and self-management. Over time there have been three major studies measuring the effectiveness of the Muskegon community-based delivery system for improvement of Diabetes care management. Click here for more about these studies. From 1998 to 2003 the Muskegon County Diabetes Network worked with 72 primary care physicians to establish uniform Diabetes charting among providers and develop clinical protocols. As a result, there was a statistically significant improvement in the number of patients who met all four care management goals; HbA1C levels, fasting blood sugar, LDL, and blood pressure.
In 2002 the Diabetes Coalition partnered with Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan in a study of nearly 300 African American Men following the Stanford Diabetic Self-Management program. The research found that the intervention group made significantly greater progress in reducing key Diabetic indicators after a 6 month class on self-management, when compared to the control group, which showed negligible improvement.
In 2007 to 2009 a "Call To Care" disease management study examined the impact of home visits by community health workers on 138 low-adhering individuals with Diabetes. These home visits were focused on Diabetes  education and self-management when combined with primary care physician visits. When home visits were combined with PCP appointments, the reduction in the HbA1C key indicator was significant. By comparison, PCP appointment alone showed only random reductions in HbA1C.
In addition to these important studies on how the effectiveness of community-based health care, the Diabetes coalition provides extensive outreach to build community awareness of the need to target health resources to at-risk populations through health fairs, screenings, and collaborative programs with other coalitions.
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