Breaking the Chains of Diabetes: A study for people with diabetes [STUDY]

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fmcpherson

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Hi,

My name is Fiona McPherson, and I am leading a PhD study called Breaking the Chains of Diabetes: A study on diabetes patients’ consensus on the need for and kind of physical, psychological and social support to enhance self-management.
  • Are you 18 years old or over?
  • Have you been diagnosed with any variant of diabetes and are currently living with the condition?
  • Do you want to share your experiences of living with diabetes?
  • Do you want to contribute to a nationwide diabetes survey
If you answered yes to the above questions, I would like to invite you to participate in a study on behalf of Teesside University, in order to research self management and the support needs of people living with Diabetes. As a part of participating in this study, you will be asked to
  • Fill out a two week diary about your routine, experiences and challenges of living with Diabetes and any support you feel you may need.
  • Complete a one to one online interview where you will answer questions on what you put into your diaries along with several general questions about your diabetes experience and support.
I have dedicated my research to Diabetes to help people like you live with diabetes and get the support you need in order to live a full and healthy life and self-manage their condition effectively. This study will later be followed by a national survey at a later date, one which I hope to enlist members of the Diabetes UK forums for when it is cleared by Teesside University's Board of Ethics.

If you choose to take part, please email your interest to me at f.mcpherson@tees.ac.uk. I have attached the original poster for the study to this post, to help inform you about the study in greater detail. If you are accepted, I will send the Participant Information Sheet and Consent Form, and if you have any questions do not hesitate to answer them in the thread. Thank you for reading and I hope to see you in the study.

This study has been approved by @Josh DUK
 

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This has been approved. Please help if you can.
 
Good luck with your research Fiona @fmcpherson

Could you let people know a little more about the diary participants will be asked to keep?

You may also have a typo in your post (and on your poster)?
consensus on the need for and kind of...
Click to expand...


consensus on the need for anY kind of...

🙂
 
everydayupsanddowns said:
Good luck with your research Fiona @fmcpherson

Could you let people know a little more about the diary participants will be asked to keep?

You may also have a typo in your post (and on your poster)?


consensus on the need for anY kind of...

🙂
Click to expand...
Thank you for your feedback. The title refers to need for and kind of, which is to say that I am assessing both the perceived support requirements of people living with diabetes and the kind of support that they believe will help in their circumstance.

The diary will take place over 14 days, starting from when everyone receives a copy of the diary. Considering the ongoing lockdown, and to ensure every participant has the same starting context, a simultaneous handout is necessary.

As for the diary itself:

Diary Page One.png
Here is a sample of the diary. On the vertical axis, the study is being split into three facets of living with diabetes:

Physical - things like injecting, having low blood sugar levels, any complications like eye or circulation troubles, and how they affect your daily life and your management of diabetes
Psychological - Your mental state and how diabetes is affecting that, and anything like depression or any other mental health issue linked to diabetes.
Social - Diabetes can cause problems with social life as well, as it can impact things like social drinking - or in this pandemic, how often you go out due to diabetes being in the group "clinically vulnerable" to COVID-19. Diabetes can also affect how you interact with and at your workplace for these reasons.

On the horizontal axis there will be:

Diabetes Experience and Challenges - What happened today as a result of your diabetes and how did it impact your day to day life?
Thoughts and Suggestions - Reflecting on what happened, how might it have been addressed and what support, if any, would have helped you overcome the challenges mentioned in the previous column?

The diary is 14 pages like the one above. There will be an information sheet and consent form handed to every participant before they receive a diary. They will not receive a diary or be able to start the study until the consent form is signed and returned. As a qualitative study, descriptive detail is appreciated but as long as the problems and suggestions are clearly stated you can be as concise as you want. The participant number section is for my use to anonymise the data, and turn names into numbers so as to maintain participant privacy. Thank you again for your question and I hope this helps you and others who may be interested in the research.
 
I did think about this - but having read the further information I have to conclude that I can't help. Diabetes just doesn't have any impact on my life.
 
Well of course it does have a physical impact on my life. but I had to start in 1972 making room in my life to accommodate it unnoticeably and I've pretty much succeeded by now as I no longer actually notice such things as testing BG or changing a cannula or having a cartridge finish right at the moment before you find out who killed **** Robin or gets checked out of Strictly this week.

I certainly do NOT wish to have to think about it all every single day for a fortnight.

I have arranged my life already to fool my brain into believing what Drummer said!! Suits me thanks.
 
Drummer said:
Diabetes just doesn't have any impact on my life.
Click to expand...

Well it does even though you may not realise.

You spend lot of time on diabetes forums so must think about condition fair amount, consciously or unconsciously or both.

Diabetes effects us all so don't accept it when peeps say it has no impact on them.
 
fmcpherson said:
The title refers to need for and kind of, which is to say that I am assessing both the perceived support requirements of people living with diabetes and the kind of support that they believe will help in their circumstance
Click to expand...

Ah! That makes sense, sorry for my confusion! and thanks for the extra details. Hope you get plenty of volunteers 🙂
 
nonethewiser said:
Well it does even though you may not realise.

You spend lot of time on diabetes forums so must think about condition fair amount, consciously or unconsciously or both.

Diabetes effects us all so don't accept it when peeps say it has no impact on them.
Click to expand...
It is the dreadful lack of care and misinformation which brings me back to the forums - but I am often listening to music and taking a few minutes to practice playing it - the amount of concentration required is considerable, so spacing it out helps. I also spend time on knitting forums, a melodeon group, a kilt forum, folk music group and other interests - my own personal situation really is not of much concern.
 
Drummer said:
It is the dreadful lack of care and misinformation which brings me back to the forums
Click to expand...

Point entirely, condition does have impact on your life not physically but mentally, not criticism as its hard to escape mental burden of living with diabetes.
 
If anyone is free to help with this survey, please get in touch with the researcher.
 
nonethewiser said:
Well it does even though you may not realise.

You spend lot of time on diabetes forums so must think about condition fair amount, consciously or unconsciously or both.

Diabetes effects us all so don't accept it when peeps say it has no impact on them.
Click to expand...
Plus - I come here AFTER looking after my knitting groups, that is the main use of my time. I have a jug of coffee with cream over a nightlight and have music playing. When I finish online then I do my crocheting or knitting.
Although I want to help, diabetes is very much an afterthought, and the diabetes forums a time filler.
 
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