Research Article
Subjective Experience of Illness Among
Adolescents and Young Adults With
Diabetes: A Qualitative Research Study
Journal of Patient Experience
2018, Vol. 5(2) 140-146
ª The Author(s) 2017
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DOI: 10.1177/2374373517738234
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Silvia Potı̀, PhD1, Francesca Emiliani, PhD1, and Laura Palareti, PhD1
Abstract
Diabetes mellitus type 1 is a chronic illness that has its onset in childhood or adolescence. It is determined by the insufficient
production of insulin. The main therapies consist of replacement of the lacking insulin, diet, exercise, and glycemic control.
If treatment is managed by parents in childhood, adherence seems to be a difficult issue during adolescence. In order to
understand the subjective experience of the illness and treatment, the present study aims to investigate the patients’ subjective
perspective by addressing a group of adolescents and young adults in pediatric care. A qualitative research design was adopted
with semi-structured interviews, and later software thematic analysis was performed. Six core issues were deepened: family
and health-care professional’s mediation support for self-management, adherence to treatments as a boring responsibility,
disclosure problems in peer relationships, difficulty in becoming autonomous in a period of socioeconomic crisis, illness as
concern for the future, and seeking a normal life in daily activities. The knowledge can be useful for designing more appropriate
interventions that favor the active engagement of patients.
Keywords
adherence, chronic illness, diabetes, qualitative analysis, youth, adolescence, patients perspectives/narratives
Introduction
Chronic diseases are increasingly common, also among
youth. In particular, the prevalence of diabetes in adolescents
is increasing (1). Diabetes mellitus type 1 (T1DM) is a
chronic medical condition that has its onset in childhood and
adolescence. It is determined by the insufficient production
of insulin, the hormone needed for glucose utilization by the
b cells of the pancreas. The primary therapies consist of
the replacement of insulin through multiple daily injections
(using syringes or “pens”) or via a portable, batterypowered infusion pump, which delivers insulin subcutaneously. The therapy also includes diet planning, exercise,
and glycemic control.
Although parents are generally responsible for care and
supervision when the patient is a child, in adolescence and
early adulthood patients have to learn to self-manage the
treatments. As noted by Hilliard et al, the transition from
adolescence to young adulthood, often referred to as
“emerging adulthood”, is a vulnerable period marked
by changes in physical, emotional, and social domains
(2). It is a newly recognized developmental period of life from
the late teens through the 20s (1,3,4), in which patients
explore their identity and experience many new transitions,
desires, expectations, and roles (2). Some researchers indicate,
however, a difficult adherence to treatments during this age
transition (2, 5). It is an important phenomenon, little studied
by researchers (6), also because emerging adults at an
increased risk of declining health status during this age transition can increase the future complication linked to T1DM (2).
Recent psychosocial literature has addressed the issue of
adherence according to patient difficult engagement as a
crucial aspect of medical care (7–9). As noted by Martinez
and colleagues, “Diabetes management in the adolescent age
group presents a more complex set of challenges given the
range of physiological, social, and emotional changes which
occur between childhood and adulthood, including puberty,
peer pressure, a desire to be ‘normal,’ identity formation and,
often, testing of boundaries set by health care professionals,
1
Department of Education Studies “Giovanni Maria Bertin,” University of
Bologna, Bologna, Italy
Corresponding Author:
Laura Palareti, Department of Education Studies “Giovanni Maria Bertin,”
Via Filippo Re 6, 40126 Bologna, Italy.
Email: laura.palareti2@unibo.it
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(http://www.creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/) which permits non-commercial use, reproduction and distribution of the work without further
permission provided the original work is attributed as specified on the SAGE and Open Access pages (https://us.sagepub.com/en-us/nam/open-access-at-sage).
141
Potı` et al
parents, and caregivers” (5, pp. 1-2). Young patients have to
contend with contradictory aspects (i.e. dependence vs
autonomy) that affect their ability to actively participate
in care (10–13). The medical prescription is therefore
grounded in the everyday life of the young people, balancing different desires.
Furthermore, as indicated by Balfe (6), routines play an
important role in diabetes self-care, but management practices of them can be very difficult in some social context as
school or work, for the fear of stigma or isolation. Healthcare routines, therefore, should be first internalized as something of good for the self and then they can be transformed in
good practices.
So adherence to therapy in adolescence and early adulthood must be understood in the light of the values, images,
and meanings. As pointed out by several authors, subjective
“experiential truth” influences in fact the decision-making
processes and daily practices (14, 15).
From this perspective, we designed a qualitative research
project that involved interviews with teenagers and young
adults with diabetes. This research is part of a larger ongoing
research project that explores adjustment to transitions in
different chronic diseases (16, 17).
Aims and Methods
The present research project aims to clarify the subjective
experience of illness in a group of teenagers and young
adults with diabetes in care at the pediatric division of an
Italian Hospital.
Since our interest is to explore the representation of living
with diabetes as it emerges in this particular period of transition to adulthood, we used in-depth interviews. In-depth
interviews create a format for narrative power to convey
emotions, thoughts, beliefs, which is why both psychology
and medical research consider this medium to be a rich
qualitative research tool (17–19).
This explorative study, in fact, highlighting the core psychological issues, intend to explore the richness of participants’ illness representation, revealing the depth of their
idiographic subjective experience. The interest of this
research is to understand how each issue is developed and
valued by our participants.
Sample
Adolescents and young “emerging” adults aged from 11
to 25 years with T1DM were first contacted by the pediatric physician from the university hospital department
where they were in care as outpatients. The physician
described the study, encouraging their participation
explaining and acting as a mediator for the survey. Interested patients received a letter explaining the research
aims and methodology in detail. They also received a
sociodemographic questionnaire that included sex, type
of therapy, and age.
Fifteen of the 25 contacted patients agreed to participate.
Each participant was given a voucher for the purchase of
books or music products as a way to thank them for their
participation.
Age of the sample was mostly equally distributed according to sex (7 males and 8 females). All practiced home
treatment. Six of the participants used the pump at the time
of the interview, while 9 others used a syringe or pen.
Data Collection
The face-to-face, semi-structured interviews, each lasting
about 60 minutes, took place in a private office in the pediatrics department and were conducted by one of the authors of
this article. Researchers had obtained informed consent from
all participants and from parents of minors, together with
their permission for the anonymized transcripts. Parents
were not present during the interviews.
An interview grid was prepared ad hoc. The areas that we
wanted to explore were: self-image, relationships, first
awareness of having diabetes, coping strategies growing up
with diabetes, adherence with treatment regimens, perceived
social support, and aspirations for the future.
Participants were encouraged to talk about their personal
experience of illness, and their own perspective was elicited
with nondirective prompts and open-ended questions.
All the interviews were audio-recorded and anonymously
transcribed verbatim. The university’s ethics committee
approved the research project.
Study Design and Data Analysis
In analyzing the interviews, a bottom-up approach was preferred, deepening through the patients perspective the most
common key themes (19, 20). To do this, a software for text
analysis was used (T-Lab; 21), so that the starting point was
not the researcher’s categorization of interviews’ contents, but
the observation of respondents’ lexical choices and of particular patterns of words identified across all the narratives.
The resulting themes that summarize all the data production can be considered latent themes, as they can be influenced by the topics solicited by the interviewer, but do not
correspond to them. A particular association of concepts/
words, in fact, may appear in response to different matters,
so what emerges as a main theme will be the topic expressed
through such association. Specifically, T-Lab was used to
perform cluster and factorial analyses on the interviews.
From an operational point of view, interview transcripts
were merged into a single text file, omitting the researchers’
questions. The software identified the co-occurrence of keywords within the text and their combination in groups of
words to form clusters, that is, themes expressed by the
participants. For each cluster, the list of keywords was provided, together with examples of the sentences in which they
co-occur. Clusters are more or less inclusive of patients’
perspective, depending on the percentage of phrases
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Journal of Patient Experience 5(2)
Table 1. Extracts of the Typical Phrases for Each Clusters.
“My mother said me: ‘Just call your doctor because I do not know if I can give you [a tattoo]’. I said I’ll
Cluster 1:“Social support as a
call the doctor T., and she told me not to worry, everyone has one, including people with
facilitator for self-management of
diabetes.”;
care”
“If they [friends] do not understand when I explain the first time, I can explain a second time, and
show it, I have no problem. Since childhood my parents have got me used to knowing that this is my
life, like it or not, it’s my life, and I’m perfectly used to it and it is normal.”; “Family members are
very important. It is all the strength that you are given, they are the first to welcome you and make
you understand that nothing has changed, that the relationship with you is always the same, and
make you accept sickness!”
Cluster 2: “Diabetes as an organic “It’s happened only once [to forget it], but it was an oversight . . . I still don’t understand how it
happened, I didn’t do the insulin and test . . . it was the morning after, and at the lunchtime test I had
disease and care routines as a
blood sugar of almost 600, because I had played sports but I had not taken insulin, and my blood
mechanical duty”
sugar went up again”
“Even if I forget that she [the physician] advised me, then I notice it when I go to do take the glycemic
test”.
“I realize that I arrive at dinner and my blood sugar is up to 200, and then I say: ah, yes, it is true, she
told me to check.”
Cluster 3: “Commitment in
“It was a new environment, with different classmates. My problem when I returned to school was that
disclosure and coping activities”
I had to bring out the syringes . . . ”
“In elementary school there was a lot of collaboration, both with the teacher and with my classmates,
they helped me, there was no derision or mockery . . . from the teacher either.”
“ My friends don’t even know that I have diabetes, because I’m pretty good at masking it, and I do
everything that others do. Well, if they see me while I take the insulin I have to tell them, because
otherwise they might think . . . this is not right!”
Cluster 4: “Ambiguity toward
“Right now I’d like to find a job, even start to do something to be a bit more independent, now that
autonomy”
they are also quite a bit older, but still . . . it is difficult.”
“If I’m accepted [at university], I’ll be happy. Otherwise I’ll go to a totally different university, and I
think I’ll do that anyway, I don’t think I’ll work. Because, anyway, partly due to the period, you
know, because our country is in [economic] crisis.”
“University is not in my mind, but you never know. I would like it very much”
Cluster 5: “Loss, disruption and fear “[ . . . ] there might be some company managers who want perfectly healthy people, because I have a
for the future”
crisis, and 1 day I can’t go, for him it’s a loss . . . but no I think because diabetes has become quite
common and so you should not make great discrimination.”
“[ . . . ] but come on, I think it can happen, for a twenty year old, even when I was younger I was always
losing everything all the time, other than that . . . ah but I am like that by nature, I’m careless.”
“If by chance I lose a grandparent, because usually when I’m sad I have mood swings fast . . . diabetics
suffer a lot.”
Cluster 6: “A desire for normality “Up to now my job has been to study, so I put that first. Then if I have time I do other things, but since
and a daily life like any teenager”
I can’t, because I go to school at one-thirty, I get home at three o’clock, the time to study, because
there are a lot of subjects, the teachers expect a lot.”
“In my spare time . . . I’m a little listless, in the sense that . . . maybe I try to exercise, to do sport,
because anyway with diabetes it makes me feel quite well, and to stay in motion, so the gym,
swimming.”
“Instead of staying at home to study, I went out with friends . . . entertainment, that is the fun.”
comprising them compared to the total number. After analyzing and interpreting the output, the researchers assigned a
label to each cluster.
The software also identified factors (generally 2 or 3)
that can be considered the basic categorization systems for
the analyzed topic. Each factor is divided into 2 polarities
(negative and positive) which indicate 2 opposite poles of
sense-making processes. These dimensions are formed by
different words. After analyzing the words that make up the
positive and negative polarities of each factor, the researchers assigned a label to each pole of the factors. Graphically,
the factor axes form a factorial space, that is a broader map
of meanings inside of which lie the clusters, that is the
themes, positioned near the polarities of the factors by
which they are best represented. The positioning of the
clusters on the factorial space helped also the authors to
interpret the themes (note 1).
The software analysis was carried out by a trained
researcher (one of the authors). The coding process of the
statistical output was iterative and involved all authors.
Findings
The analysis highlights 6 relevant themes, ranked according
to their importance (weight), established by the number of
sentences divided by the total number of phrases. In Table 1,
some examples of the typical phrases are indicated, while
below the main themes are shown.
Potı` et al
Clusters
1. Social support as a facilitator for self-management of care.
This theme is made up of 367 utterances within the 1029
total utterances, and it saturates 35.67% of the variability of
the text, so this theme is the most common among the
adolescents and young adults surveyed. Participants
showed a high degree of acceptance of the illness and were
learning to live with diabetes with the help of key figures
such as parents and hospital staff considered friendly and
helpful. In particular, the importance of the pediatric
department is evoked.
Reassurance is considered important, together with the
need for understanding the disease, talking about and listening to explanations (some main keywords of this cluster are
explain, talk, understand, teach, learn, accept, fear, manage).
Social support is viewed as protective and a facilitator for
self-management of care. These aspects seem to favor the
positive process of acceptance, elaboration of emotions, and
sense-making for patients. However, the process of the integration of the illness in the self and autonomous everyday
life still seems to offer challenges. Young patients must
develop the ability to manage their care by themselves, overcoming forgetfulness, laziness, fear, and shame (keywords
mentioned by the respondents, also implied by reference to
the bathroom as an ideal place to self-inject in secret).
2. Diabetes as an organic disease and care routines as a
mechanical duty. The second theme occupies 18.95% of the
total variability of the text (it is formed by 195 utterances). In
this theme, illness seems to be experienced as an organic
disease and therefore as an error to be corrected.
Diabetes therapy actions are described as almost mechanical (most common words are check, value, measure, monitor, correct), and the person is represented like a device that
works better or worse, depending on whether the patient
forgets or remembers to take his insulin regularly.
The control—referred to the amount of insulin to be
injected, to food, and levels of glucose in the blood—and
the regulation of treatment appear rigid.
Moreover, this representation is linked to some objects
such as pens, needles, insulin pumps, syringes, whose use
must become daily. Instead of being integrated into identity
and routine, the objects seem to recall a duty that must be
performed for the respondents. This theme does not evoke
any particular key figure or emotions.
3. Commitment in disclosure and coping activities. This theme is
composed of 179 utterances, accounting for 17.40% of the
total. This topic refers to the disclosure of being person with
diabetes (PWD) to peers and other adults. The illness is
associated with a sense of diversity, the fear of stigma by
peers, and the feeling of being unfortunate or disadvantaged.
This theme refers to all school levels, relationships with
classmates and teachers, normal activities of adolescence
(such as listening to music, sports, surfing the Internet),
143
where certain character traits are useful for a good social life
(like being cheerful). Adolescents and young adults may
have to deal with their illness and inform their peers, even
arguing with them.
Participants were very involved in disclosure and coping
activities and are touchy about teasing or comments. Moving
into different classes seems also to pose a problem, settling
in a new environment and meeting new people to whom, at
each step of the school system, they have to explain their
condition. This issue also regards receiving help in times of
need or explaining reasons for their unusual behavior, such
as leaving the classroom, eating during lessons, or not eating
a cheesecake in a party.
4. Ambiguity toward autonomy. The fourth theme is composed
of 110 of a total of 1029 utterances analyzed by the software,
accounting for 10.69% of the total. The process of achieving
autonomy is depicted at the same time as challenging and
enjoyable. A great difficulty is read into the economic crisis
and the historical period we are living in, which makes adolescence and young adulthood in general problematic life
phases but still full of hope and plans for the future.
In particular, young people ask themselves what place
they will find in society. Education and work are considered a strong part of personal realization, which is however
hampered by the sociopolitic context, where the difficulty
of finding work is compensated by affection from friends
and family.
In this theme, being PWD does not seem to be a problem
or a status with which adolescents identify, but is considered
a condition in relationship to broader personal and professional projects.
5. Loss, disruption, and fear for the future. This cluster consists
of 92 utterances and covers 8.94% of the total variance. As
opposed to the previous theme, this theme focuses on the
broken dreams and concerns for the future, particularly distressing emotional dimensions such as the sense of death and
loss. The illness emerges with words such as device, use,
needle, pocket, calculate, biscuit, weigh, pen. Specifically,
needles are associated with “dope” (indicating drugs). Diabetes is envisaged as a hindrance to pursuing goals and
dreams in the future.
Dreams of having a child, buying an apartment, are
shattered because of illness. This theme evokes not only
loss of health but also loss of the tools necessary for selfcare, which can be forgotten, or loss of the control that is
constantly required.
6. A desire for normality and a daily life like any teenager. Finally,
the last cluster, the smallest, is made up of 8.36% of the
utterances, totaling 86 utterances of 1029. In this theme
appear daily activities, life in a small town, peaceful afternoons with friends, games, study commitments, hobbies in
their leisure time.
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Journal of Patient Experience 5(2)
AcƟons and
PracƟces
Theme
6
EVERYDAY
LIFE
CONTROL
Theme 2
PEER RELATIONSHIPS
Theme 3
Focus on diabetes
Normal life
Theme
5
LOSS AND DISRUPTION
AUTONOMY
Theme
4
Theme 1
EmoƟons
SOCIAL SUPPORT
Figure 1. Factorial space and themes.
Among activities appear the gym, swimming, basketball, soccer, and sport in general, as well as music and
travel. Along with daily life, periods of rest are also mentioned, such as weekends and summer. In these situations,
the emotions reported are stress and tension, for fear of
making a bad impression.
The words and the sentences that are grouped in this
cluster don’t seem to address any specific issue concerning
diabetes, that is mentioned only with references to its consequences such as weakness and feeling like a fool. Indeed
respondents talk about themselves describing ordinary activities and emotions of every adolescent.
Factorial Space
The analysis identified also 3 factors that describe the main
oppositions in the sense-making process (Figure 1). The horizontal axis shows a process organized around a shift
between a normal life typical of adolescents or young adults,
on one hand, and a life focused mainly on diabetes, on the
other. The vertical axis shows a contrast between 2 other
opposite dimensions: on the lower polarity we found a
reflexive process and an elaboration of emotions toward the
acceptance of illness, while on the upper polarity we found a
focus on actions and strategies based mainly on medical
interventions. Finally, the third factor (perpendicular to the
page) shows a contrast between the conception of diabetes as
loss and disruption and an experience of diabetes as linked to
significant relationships.
As we can see from the figure, the control (cluster n. 2) is
placed in the quadrant defined by actions and a focus on
diabetes, while the autonomy process (cluster n. 4) is located
in the zone of the factorial space defined by emotions and
life marked by sustainable routine. Social support (cluster n.
1) is placed in the quadrant defined by the focus on diabetes
and on emotions, while the theme of everyday life (cluster n.
6) is in the quadrant defined by practices and normal activities. More oriented on the factor perpendicular to the others
we find the theme of loss and breakage (cluster n.5) in contrast to that of peer relations and disclosure (cluster n.3).
Discussion
Findley and colleagues (1) referred that the key components
of transitional care practices that are associated with positive
outcomes are an individual support and a strong and trustworthy relationship with reference health-care figures, as
well as indicating the need for appropriate protocols to deal
with the transition from adolescence to adulthood. However,
there have been few studies that directly address the
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Potı` et al
perspective of chronically ill patients, specially of adolescent
and young adults. Although the traditional medical approach
only relies on information and behavioral skills as means to
improve adherence to medical prescriptions, we have considered the psychosocial nature of illness and therapy. The
present study therefore proposes to explore the main issues
relevant to people affected by diabetes during this particular
phase of transition. Adolescents and young adult have to deal
with psychosocial issues such as conformity, fear of judgment and stigma, feelings of intrusiveness by parents, challenges in school and at work, emotions such as guilt and
shame, and with a drop in levels of adherence to treatments
(6). In this framework, adherence to therapy needs to be
considered a cognitive and affective process of involvement
within a relational environment.
In order to increase a patient’s engagement, and make
it active and responsible, it is necessary that services
invest in research aimed at understanding the subjective
meanings that substantiate the lives within which the disease is inscribed.
Within this research project in particular, we have seen
the support provided by parents and hospital staff as the most
important aspect perceived as useful for adherence to treatment. Participants, in fact, emphasize the psychological
importance of belonging to a pediatric department perceived
as protective, and the difficulty of change envisioned in
moving toward autonomy. In a complementary way, some
authors have investigated how the change of hospital ward,
from pediatric to adult one, is a significant change that must
be regulated by specific programs (1, 2).
Findings also highlight that control is considered as completely opposite of autonomy. The issue of control is marked
by a medical vision of diabetes and is experienced by
patients as a boring performance imposed by an authority.
The role provided by the routines is not a protective one,
because they are not already internalized into the self (6).
Another theme that emerged is the general feeling of loss
and breakage of dreams. It is a small theme, not very representative of the respondents’ experience of illness, but it
deserves close attention as a risk theme. Scientific literature
has in fact shown that it is typical for diabetic adolescents to
have a sense of fatalism, a fear of death, and the sense of a
threat for the future associated with a denial of self-care (10).
Friends are very important and are associated with issue
of living with diabetes. Our results, in line with other studies
(22), showed the fear of stigma and the need for giving
explanation and receiving comprehension, especially from
peers. Finally, the search for a normal life is expressed
through the daily routines of every teenager struggling with
the process of growth.
Strengths and Limits of the Study
A strength point of the present research lies in its ideographic
character that makes it particularly useful in the design of
locally organized hospital interventions. A limitation of this
qualitative study is the poorness of numerical composition of
the sample.
Clinical Implications
This research could be a useful basis for the organization of
psychosocial support groups with young diabetics, with the
purpose of promoting adherence and better integration of the
illness into the sense of self and daily life. The peer groups
could encourage autonomy, problem-solving skills, disclosure, decision-making, and confidence in the selfmanagement of illness, starting from specific data emerged
from our study. As pointed out by Martinez (5), it is very
important the effectiveness of psychosocial and educational
interventions for adolescents with diabetes, beyond a specific care model for transitional care.
Acknowledgments
The authors wish to thank all the adolescents and young adults who
kindly took part in this study for their insights into life with diabetes. The authors also wish to acknowledge Drs Tosca and
Soprani, physicians at M. Bufalini Hospital in Cesena, Italy, for
their logistic support, sensitivity in psychological issues, and interest toward their patients.
Declaration of Conflicting Interests
The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect
to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.
Funding
The author(s) disclosed receipt of the following financial support
for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article: This
study was partly supported by a research grant from Emilia
Romagna Region which founded the author Silvia Potı̀ for collection and analysis of data.
Note
1. The software also allows to know whether some sociodemographic or clinical variables (sex, age, and type of therapy) are
associated with particular themes. Given the small number of
interviews, we will not discuss this kind of information here,
reserving to increase the number of participants. It is important
therefore to note that, using this methodology, the thematic analysis reliability is instead due not so much to the number of interviews but to the richness and the length of the collected texts.
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Author Biographies
Silvia Potı̀, PhD, psychotherapist, had worked as postdoctoral
researcher at the Laboratoire de Psychologie Sociale (LPS) at École
des hautes études en sciences sociales in Paris. At the time of the
research, she was research assistant at the Department of Education
Studies, University of Bologna. She is part of a research team that
studies psychosocial aspects of chronic health conditions. Her
research interests focus on the qualitative methods of textual
analysis.
Francesca Emiliani now retired as full professor of Social Psychology at Department of Education Studies, University of
Bologna. Her research interests focused on Social Representations
and Everyday life, and on chronic illness. She is also a clinical
psychologist.
Laura Palareti, PhD, is an assistant professor at the Department of
Education Studies, University of Bologna. She has been engaged in
research on the psychosocial aspects of chronic illness (hemophilia
and diabetes) for several years. Her other main research fields are
the evaluation of prevention programmes for adolescents and the
quality of residential care for children and youths.