Abstract
BACKGROUND
Diabetes will occur at any age, but the presence of co-morbid conditions in the elderly population complicates its management. There are increasing concerns about managing the physical and emotional perspectives of older people whose functional and reasoning needs are on a decline. An older adult with diabetes is at increased risk of developing mental illness and is considered as one of the emerging widespread health issues of the twenty first century in India. Compliance with self-care behaviour is essential in developing a better outcome in glycaemic control and quality of life. This study aims to explore the self-care management experiences and challenges of older women with diabetes using online group discussion.
METHODS
Purposive sampling method was adopted to assign patients with diabetes from four semi-urban communities of India from different regions. Twenty-two women were employed to obtain data, and conduct group discussions a total of ten times through online sessions.
RESULTS
Three themes were generated from the collected and analysed data such as body mind voice perception, everyday challenges, including self-management accomplishment problems in exploring novel insights of their experiences and issues of older women with regard to self-care management of diabetes.
CONCLUSIONS
Community healthcare multidisciplinary teams must be involved in providing health education to the needed population with diabetes to minimize patients' anxiety and to develop more patient focused, high quality, competent and compassionate care. In addition to monitoring patients, more attention is needed on successful adaptation to maintain a better quality of life.