(P28-030-23) Removing Oneself From Self-Management: The Lived Experiences of Three Individuals Managing Type 2 Diabetes

Objectives: This study explores narratives of individuals living with type 2 diabetes (T2DM) to understand how they use care recommendations and what challenges persist with managing their condition. Knowledge gleaned from participant interviews will inform future diabetes care recommendations and educational programming.

Methods: The Listening Guide method (LG) was used to analyze interviews with three individuals as part of a pilot study. Three analytic steps were conducted: (1) mapping out cognitions surrounding diabetes care and persistent struggles with management present in each monologue, (2) listing ‘I’ statements that indicated participant feelings about T2DM treatments, and (3) differentiating between various voices (vocal tone, pitch, pace) in each participant’s narrative to understand how they manage their struggles with T2DM. These three steps were used to compose an analysis of the interviews. This study was approved by the New York University Institutional Review Board.

Results: Findings from these interviews show that participants are experiencing distress associated with managing T2DM. Three voices were identified: the Moving Forward Voice, the Halted Voice, and the Resigned Voice. The Moving Forward Voice expressed a positive and hopeful outlook on T2DM outcomes, while the Halted Voice interrupted the forward motion and casted self-doubt on the ability to manage T2DM. The Resigned Voice stopped the Moving Forward and Halted voices thus decreasing worrisome thoughts by removing the individual from the center of the struggle.

Conclusions: This analysis highlights the psychological struggle three individuals faced while navigating effective T2DM self-management strategies and suggests that they create a thought pattern that minimizes distress. This research underscores the need for building strategies for managing diabetes-related distress into care recommendations and educational programs to improve overall T2DM outcomes

Funding Sources: The New York University Department of Nutrition and Food Studies funded the American Society for Nutrition entry and abstract fees.