Taking a Pause: Co-Designing a Reflection Tool for Meaning Creation in Patients With Type 2 Diabetes

This study aims to explore how the design of a self-reflection tool can assist patients with type 2 diabetes (T2D) by facilitating and sustaining their reflective practices in the context of diabetes care. Specifically, the study seeks to examine how patients utilize self-reflection tools, identify aspects they feel improve diabetes management, and uncover the opportunities and challenges they encounter when integrating such tools into their daily lives.

The research involved two phases: first, the preliminary development of a self-reflection tool prototype and second, the exploration of user experience. During the second phase, five patients with T2D participated in three interview sessions bi-weekly over the period of 6 weeks. The interviews were transcribed and thematically coded, and affinity diagramming was then used to synthesize the data.

Four main themes emerged from the interviews. The designed self-reflection tool was found to have the potential to enhance participants' motivation for engaging in diabetes management by improving diabetes management, initiating self-reflection, facilitating new thoughts and meanings, and providing opportunities for the patients to share their reflections.

The designed self-reflection tool helped patients with T2D by encouraging them to adopt a more positive mindset and supporting them in addressing challenges related to their diabetes management. The study suggests that there is promising potential for the self-reflection tool to evolve into a reflection-sharing tool that can be shared with other patients.

Participants with T2D took part in the designed interviews, and their experiences and comments meaningfully contributed to enriching the co-design of the self-reflection tool. The suggested potential for this tool to be expanded into a reflection-sharing tool is also significant.