{"id":1217,"date":"2013-05-22T14:01:00","date_gmt":"2013-05-22T14:01:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/actionresearchplus.com\/2013\/05\/22\/older-women-and-chronic-illness-transitioning-and-learning-to-live-with-diabetes\/"},"modified":"2022-05-01T05:59:11","modified_gmt":"2022-05-01T05:59:11","slug":"older-women-and-chronic-illness-transitioning-and-learning-to-live-with-diabetes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/actionresearchplus.com\/older-women-and-chronic-illness-transitioning-and-learning-to-live-with-diabetes\/","title":{"rendered":"Older women and chronic illness: Transitioning and learning to live with diabetes"},"content":{"rendered":"
The number of people with chronic conditions continues to grow; yet research often focuses on the medical aspects of care rather than the experiences of individuals living with a chronic illness. My article “Older women and chronic illness: Transitioning and learning to live with diabetes” contributes to a more profound understanding of the transition period for people with chronic illnesses. This is important for many reasons. It can, of course, help people and families to better cope with the transition period, but it might also help care providers to better understand and improve vital aspects of care for people with chronic conditions.<\/p>\n
<\/a><\/p>\n Storytelling allowed us to invite participants and their families to talk about their experiences. We asked each woman to tell us about her diabetes diagnosis story.\u00a0 In listening to their stories we were able to follow the participants\u2019 daily lives and to understand the major changes their chronic illnesses made to their lives.<\/p>\n In this study, we observed transition or \u2018movement\u2019 over the twelve months after each woman\u2019s diagnosis. We found an interesting pattern regarding the behaviours of the newly diagnosed women over the course of the study. When participants were first diagnosed with diabetes she was \u2018warned\u2019 about complications should she not adhere to a new lifestyle, but there were no immediate physical ramifications. Participants\u2019 first efforts after diagnosis was to regain some control by gathering as much information as possible. Lifestyle changes were dependent on individual readiness and there was variation between participants.\u00a0 We found that transitional processes require time so that people could gradually disengage from old habits and behaviours.<\/p>\n We are looking forward to your thoughts on this research. If you have experienced a chronic illness, how does your experience compare to the experiences of the women described in this<\/a> study?<\/p>\n