The prevalence of diagnosed diabetes is 12% among adult Montana American Indians in Montana, which is approximately two times higher than among non-Indian adults. Beginning in 1997, the Montana Diabetes Prevention and Control Program (DPCP), the Billings Area Indian Health Service (IHS) diabetes program, the urban Indian program, and each of the tribal and IHS diabetes programs developed an effective collaborative partnership to identify and reduce the burden of diabetes among American Indians in Montana. Specifically, this partnership has addressed community-based health systems, health communications strategies, and surveillance, including establishing a surveillance system to monitor trends in diabetes prevalence and the quality of care among American Indian youth.

The goal of this project is to monitor trends in diabetes among Montana's American Indian youth, to evaluate the effectiveness of their diabetes prevention activities, and to identify opportunities to improve care for their patients with diabetes.

Through this partnership, epidemiologic support was provided to assist diabetes coordinators in summarizing information from their ongoing school screening programs to assess diabetes risk among youth and assess trends in preventive services and clinical outcomes. A software system also was developed to support a community-based project between the University of Montana and the Salish and Kootenai tribes to improve physical activity and nutrition among American Indians at risk for diabetes.