# Enhancing social support for diabetes self-management among men and women Veterans

> **NIH VA IK2** · VA PUGET SOUND HEALTHCARE SYSTEM · 2021 · —

## Abstract

BACKGROUND: Dr. Kristen Gray, PhD, MS is a Postdoctoral Fellow at the Seattle HSR&D Center of
Innovation for Veteran-Centered and Value-Driven Care and a Senior Fellow in the Department of Health
Services in the University of Washington School of Public Health. Her research reflects a commitment to
understanding and mitigating health disparities among women Veterans (WVs). The proposed Career
Development Award (CDA) will provide Dr. Gray with the additional training and skills needed to build a
successful career as an independent VA health services researcher developing and testing behavioral health
interventions for WVs.
KEY ELEMENTS OF THE RESEARCH PLAN: The goal of the proposed CDA is to develop and pilot test the
feasibility, acceptability, and preliminary clinical improvement of a virtual diabetes self-management
intervention tailored to men and women Veterans and their support persons. The intervention will be dyadic,
including Veterans and their support persons, and will focus on enhancing supportive and reducing
unsupportive behaviors in order to improve Veterans' self-management behaviors and disease outcomes.
Examination of gender differences in outcomes is a key focus of the proposal because: (1) the VA Evidence-
based Synthesis program recently identified a gap in knowledge of gender differences in non-pharmacologic
diabetes interventions, and (2) VA trials of self-management interventions have included few or no women,
precluding examination of gender differences,
The specific aims of the proposal are to: (1) characterize women and men Veterans' social support resources,
perceptions of supportive and unsupportive behaviors related to diabetes self-management, and facilitators
and barriers to engaging in a partnered self-management intervention through qualitative telephone interviews;
(2) identify support person perceptions of supportive and unsupportive behaviors for Veterans' self-
management and facilitators and barriers to engaging in a partnered self-management intervention through
qualitative interviews; and (3) evaluate feasibility, acceptability, and preliminary clinical improvement of a
partnered diabetes self-management intervention in a single-arm pilot trial. Based on findings from Aims 1 and
2, the intervention will be tailored to facilitate recruitment and retention of Veterans and support persons in the
Aim 3 pilot study. An equal number of men and women Veterans will be enrolled in the pilot to enable
examination of gender differences in feasibility, acceptability, and clinical improvement. The resulting product
will be a refined intervention, which will be tested in a larger, multi-site randomized controlled trial.
TRAINING: In order to accomplish CDA and career goals, Dr. Gray will seek additional training to strengthen
her health services research skills in: 1) qualitative methods, 2) health behavior change, and 3) trial design.
She will also begin introductory training in implementation science. She will participa...

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10186508
- **Project number:** 5IK2HX002189-04
- **Recipient organization:** VA PUGET SOUND HEALTHCARE SYSTEM
- **Principal Investigator:** Kristen E Gray
- **Activity code:** IK2 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** VA
- **Fiscal year:** 2021
- **Award amount:** —
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2017-03-01 → 2022-06-30

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10186508

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10186508, Enhancing social support for diabetes self-management among men and women Veterans (5IK2HX002189-04). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-22 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10186508. Licensed CC0.

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