Perspectives of Young Adults with Type 1 Diabetes Relating to Their Life and to Diabetes

Download or read book Perspectives of Young Adults with Type 1 Diabetes Relating to Their Life and to Diabetes written by Diabetes Portugal APDP and published by . This book was released on 2017 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: BackgroundThe satisfaction with life and the adherence to diabetes management tasks of young adults with type 1 diabetes can be more affected, nowadays, by the instability at several levels, namely social, occupational, familiar and emotional changes during emerging adulthood.Young adultsu2019 life has a lot of requirements and the psychological consequences of continued adherence to diabetes treatment can affect youngstersu2019 quality of life. During youth may occur stressful situations, conditioning the life of young adults with type 1 diabetes.AimsThe aims consisted of the evaluation of perceptions, representations, and opinions of young adults relating to their lives and to diabetes.MethodsThis investigation included a qualitative study, using 6 focus groups, with 4 to 6 participants in each group and posterior content analysis. The participants were 30 young adults with type 1 diabetes (10 male and 20 female), aged between 18 and 34, average age 26 years old. ResultsThis study gave a chance to share the young adultsu2019 perceptions, opinions, and feelings.The results are similar among gender. Youngsters consider leisure activities and the social support from family, employers, colleagues, and friends very important, relating to emotional aid and support in diabetes care. Regarding leisure and physical activity, they consider it to be similar to friends without diabetes since they care about diabetes treatment. They referred difficulties in nutrition, physical activity, insulin therapy and metabolic control. They talked about their beliefs and perceptions about living with diabetes, namely diabetes controlu2019s difficulties.They also mentioned the benefits of group education activities and summer camps with other youngsters with diabetes, relating to acceptance, adaptation to diabetes and wellbeing, as well as the good support of health care team.Discussion Youngsters shared their experiences and perceptions about diabetes during focus groups. In spite of the difficulties at this stage of life, most of the young adults with type 1 diabetes showed good adaptation to diabetes.Based on this study we conclude that young adultsu2019 consider their physical and leisure activities to be similar to other youngsters since they take care of diabetes. They related difficulties with adherence to diabetes treatment and metabolic control. The young adults highlighted the good social support from family, friends and multidisciplinary healthcare team and referred the benefits of group activities with peers, which help them to better deal with diabetes.