Diabetes Self-care in Daily Life: A Qualitative Study on Goal Conflict Management in Emerging Adults With Type 1...

Our aim in this study was to gain further insight into the way emerging adults with type 1 diabetes experience and manage conflicts between their desire to take good care of their diabetes and reaching daily goals in other life domains.

Participants were recruited from 3 locations of a Dutch type 1 diabetes care and research centre until researchers considered data saturation to have been reached. Sixteen emerging adults were interviewed and completed a diary for 3 days. Interview transcripts were analyzed by 2 researchers, using directed content analysis.

Participants had daily conflicts between self-management and attaining goals in various life domains (including food, alcohol, sports, school/work, and leisure activities); social goals figured prominently. Generally, participants first tried to combine their diabetes goal and other goals by means of flexible self-care supported by modern technology, thorough planning, and social support. When combining was not possible, most participants tended to prioritize nondiabetes goals, unless they perceived a high risk for adverse health outcomes. Prioritization of diabetes goals, as well as nondiabetes goals, often resulted in negative emotions such as sadness and guilt.

For emerging adults, good care of diabetes is a challenge to undertake while also addressing other goals of daily life. Combination and prioritization strategies both play a role in efforts to deal with these goal conflicts, although the latter often trigger negative emotions. The present findings can be used for the optimization of diabetes self-management support by taking the broader life context into account.