RESEARCH REVIEW:
Diabetes prevention project,
International export and Las Vegas

August 26, 2010 by The Rebel Yell 

This summer, UNLV researchers kicked off a program aimed at reducing the risk of diabetes among some of those most prone to the disease.

Life in Balance targets pre-diabetic Native Americans and Alaskan Natives in urban Southern Nevada.

The program is funded by a $300,000 grant from the National Institutes of Health.

Sixteen participants were selected in late July and have already undertaken the strict diet and exercise plan.

They are 21 or older and qualify for the project based on their self-identified ethnicity and their status as “pre-diabetic,” which is a designation based on blood glucose levels.

The participants are working out 150 minutes a week and regularly meeting with lifestyle coaches to learn how to keep themselves healthy without the use of medication.

The goal is to lose 5 to 7 percent of their total body weight by the end of the 16-week program.

The researchers are focused on measuring participants’ progress.

Daniel Benyshek, a medical anthropologist at UNLV, researches Native Americans’ predisposition to type 2 diabetes. For Life in Balance, he tests participants’ success based on body mass index, levels of blood sugar and cholesterol, blood pressure, heart rate, body fat and waist circumference.

Along with Benyshek, the team includes Michelle Chino, a professor of public health and the founding director of the UNLV American Indian Research Education Center and the Center for Health Disparities Research and Carolee Dodge-Francis, an American Indian researcher, professor of public health and director of the UNLV American Indian Research Education Center.
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International export and Las Vegas
Brookings Mountain West, the UNLV-based branch of the Washington D.C. think tank, has recently released a report with large-scale economic implications for Las Vegas and other large metropolitan centers in what the institute has dubbed the “Intermountain West.” The report finds that to succeed in a post-recession economy, the large metropolitan economies of the region must follow an emerging trend toward exporting goods and services internationally.

The report analyzes data from 2003 through 2008 pertaining to the export profiles of the 10 largest Intermountain West metropolitan centers. It examines economic output as well as trends in job growth. By providing an accurate picture of the strengths and weaknesses of each city, the research zeroes in on areas of potential increases in export demand.

The findings of the study are significant for Las Vegas. According to the report, “The prospect of such gains is especially attractive … given the present moment of self-reflection in a region that appears faced with the partial breakdown of its traditional migration- and real estate-driven growth machine.”

There is good news for Las Vegas, and there is room for improvement.
The report found a 16.2 percent annual export growth rate between 2003 and 2008 for Las Vegas – that’s the ninth best nationally and second best in the Intermountain West – but also determined that export jobs made up a mere 3.2 percent of the Las Vegas workforce.

The report also found that in 2008, Las Vegas earned 6.2 percent of its gross metropolitan product from service exports, a larger share than any top 100 metro area in the country.

Still, the report found that in 2008 exports only accounted for 7.7 percent of Las Vegas’ gross metropolitan product, which placed the city 84th out of the nation’s top 100 metro areas. It also found that Las Vegas generated only 1.1 patents per thousand workers between 2003 and 2008 – last among the 10 largest Intermountain West metros.

According to the report, “In the aftermath of the recession, the Mountain region as well as the nation must become more export oriented and less dependent on domestic consumption and all levels of government — and the private sector — need to work together to ensure that happens.”

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