SDPI 2020 Report to Congress

Diabetes is a nationwide public health problem, and American Indian and Alaska Native (AI/AN) people are disproportionately affected. In 1997, Congress established the Special Diabetes Program for Indians (SDPI) to provide grants for diabetes treatment and prevention services to Indian Health Service (IHS), tribal, and urban Indian (I/T/U) health programs across the United States (Figure 1). Current funding for the SDPI is $150 million per year. SDPI grant program sites are successfully implementing evidence-based and community driven strategies to prevent* and treat diabetes. As Congress envisioned, tremendous improvements are occurring in diabetes outcomes for AI/AN people – and the SDPI plays a key role in making them happen. *For the purposes of this report, diabetes prevention refers to the prevention of type 2 diabetes. This sixth interim report to Congress highlights the SDPI’s ongoing and outstanding contributions to improvements in diabetes care and health outcomes for AI/AN people.