Successful Adaptation to Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus (DM2): A Qualitative Study*

Vipul Kumar and Neena Kohli

Psychology and Developing Societies, 2024, vol. 36, issue 2, 191-214

Abstract: When diabetes unexpectedly enters someone’s life, it starts interfering with every aspect of life, requiring them to make adjustments, adapt and carefully manage their lifestyle. The objectives of this qualitative research were (a) understanding the patients’ perceptions about type 2 diabetes and (b) the process of successful adaptation. The study sample consisted of 47 individuals with type 2 diabetes mellitus, aged 37 to 65 years (mean = 55.44; standard deviation [SD] = 8.56). Among them, 23 (49%) were male and 24 (51%) were female. Data were collected through a semi-structured interview schedule, which tapped information regarding demographics such as age, gender, timeline, educational qualification, and socio-economic status. The semi-structured interview schedule also comprised open-ended questions related to the meaning of diabetes, cognitive and emotional reactions, and appropriate actions for adapting to diabetes. Thematic analysis was performed to analyse and summarise the data from a theoretical perspective. The findings revealed that themes of adaptation can be divided into four broad categories: layperson’s understanding of diabetes, mastery, survival competence, and successful adaptation. Patients with diabetes make many attempts to control their diabetes as advised by healthcare professionals, other diabetics and close friends. The results showed that, despite the fact that diabetes ruins their entire lives, patients attempt to cope with diabetes by trying to make sense of their condition.

Keywords: Adaptation; type 2 diabetes mellitus; qualitative research; mastery; survival competence (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2024
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/09713336241286231 (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:sae:psydev:v:36:y:2024:i:2:p:191-214

DOI: 10.1177/09713336241286231

Access Statistics for this article

More articles in Psychology and Developing Societies
Bibliographic data for series maintained by SAGE Publications ().