Review: patients living with diabetes mellitus focus on learning to balance by assuming control for the management of their illness
Question What is the “lived experience” of people who have diabetes mellitus?
Data sources
Unpublished and published studies (including dissertations, theses, articles, and book chapters) were identified by searching 6 databases (Sociofile, PsycLit, Dissertation Abstracts, CINAHL, Medline, and Allied Health); the Canadian Nurses Association library; and refereed nursing, social science, and allied health journals and books published from 1980 to July 1996.
Study selection
Studies were included if they were qualitative interpretive research reports of the experience of living with diabetes from the perspective of an insider and included participants with diagnosed diabetes.
Data analysis
Data were analysed using meta-ethnographic synthesis (inductive analysis of data from individual studies, hypothesis development, and testing of hypothetical relations). Analyses of individual studies were reviewed by multiple researchers.
Main results
43 reports of 38 studies were identified (6 phenomenological, 5 ethnographic, 2 case, 2 focus group, 9 exploratory, and 19 grounded theory study reports). Most reports included only participants who were white (n=33) or who had type 1 (insulin dependent) diabetes mellitus (n=33). Participants were usually married women who had a minimum high school education. …
