Sub-Saharan Africa has the highest rates of mortality due to diabetes and the highest number of undiagnosed cases of diabetes compared to other regions. Our aim is to draw upon the expertise acquired in the earlier couples-focused research projects to design a couples-focused intervention to improve diabetic control using a person-based approach.
Key Questions:
- How might relationship factors within couples support better diabetic control?
- Can we evaluate the effectiveness of existing couple-focused interventions to increase diabetic control?
- Can we design interventions to promote better self-management of diabetes?
Working with the University of Cape Town we undertook a systematic literature review followed by in-depth qualitative interviews with attendees of diabetes clinics in Cape Town and their partners to look at the role of partners in enabling, reinforcing or inhibiting diabetes management.
We are now developing an intervention using the Person-Based Approach to include couples-focused work addressing lifestyle behaviour, testing behaviour, medication adherence and pluralism in healthcare seeking, with iterative community involvement to ensure that the intervention is grounded in the needs of the people.
