Cargando…

Voices of those living with type 2 diabetes in Belize: barriers to care before and during the COVID-19 pandemic

Belize has the highest national prevalence of type 2 diabetes (T2D) of Central and South America, and fifth direst in the world. T2D is the leading cause of death in Belize, a country facing burdens of increasing prevalence with few resources. Since March of 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbat...

Descripción completa

Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Allen, Lindsay P., Ellis, Lucia, Engleton, Christophe, Valerio, Valerie Lynette, Hatala, Andrew R.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: BioMed Central 2023
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10463824/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/37620814
http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s12939-023-01987-3
_version_ 1785098322444288000
author Allen, Lindsay P.
Ellis, Lucia
Engleton, Christophe
Valerio, Valerie Lynette
Hatala, Andrew R.
author_facet Allen, Lindsay P.
Ellis, Lucia
Engleton, Christophe
Valerio, Valerie Lynette
Hatala, Andrew R.
author_sort Allen, Lindsay P.
collection PubMed
description Belize has the highest national prevalence of type 2 diabetes (T2D) of Central and South America, and fifth direst in the world. T2D is the leading cause of death in Belize, a country facing burdens of increasing prevalence with few resources. Since March of 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated the difficulties of those living with T2D in Belize. To address T2D issues in Belize, our interdisciplinary research team explored the barriers to care and self-management for adult patients with T2D in Belize prior to and during the COVID-19 pandemic. Research relationships between Canadian (ARH) and Belizean (LE) authors have been ongoing since 2016. Together we used a qualitative Constructivist Grounded Theory design generating knowledge through 35 semi-structured patient interviews, 25 key informant discussions, and participant observation with field notes between February 2020 to September 2021. We used Dedoose analysis software for a systematized thematic coding process, as well as iterative verification activities. Findings revealed several barriers to care and self-management, including: 1) the tiered health and social care system with major gaps in coverage; 2) the unfulfilled demand for accurate health information and innovative dissemination methods; and 3) the compounding of loss of community supports, physical exercise, and health services due to COVID-19 restrictions. In the post-pandemic period, it is necessary to invest in physical, nutritional, economic, and psychosocial health through organized activities adaptable to changeable public health restrictions. Recommendations for activities include sending patients informational and motivational text messages, providing recipes with accessibly sourced T2D foods, televising educational workshops, making online tools more accessible, and mobilising community and peer support networks.
format Online
Article
Text
id pubmed-10463824
institution National Center for Biotechnology Information
language English
publishDate 2023
publisher BioMed Central
record_format MEDLINE/PubMed
spelling pubmed-104638242023-08-30 Voices of those living with type 2 diabetes in Belize: barriers to care before and during the COVID-19 pandemic Allen, Lindsay P. Ellis, Lucia Engleton, Christophe Valerio, Valerie Lynette Hatala, Andrew R. Int J Equity Health Research Belize has the highest national prevalence of type 2 diabetes (T2D) of Central and South America, and fifth direst in the world. T2D is the leading cause of death in Belize, a country facing burdens of increasing prevalence with few resources. Since March of 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated the difficulties of those living with T2D in Belize. To address T2D issues in Belize, our interdisciplinary research team explored the barriers to care and self-management for adult patients with T2D in Belize prior to and during the COVID-19 pandemic. Research relationships between Canadian (ARH) and Belizean (LE) authors have been ongoing since 2016. Together we used a qualitative Constructivist Grounded Theory design generating knowledge through 35 semi-structured patient interviews, 25 key informant discussions, and participant observation with field notes between February 2020 to September 2021. We used Dedoose analysis software for a systematized thematic coding process, as well as iterative verification activities. Findings revealed several barriers to care and self-management, including: 1) the tiered health and social care system with major gaps in coverage; 2) the unfulfilled demand for accurate health information and innovative dissemination methods; and 3) the compounding of loss of community supports, physical exercise, and health services due to COVID-19 restrictions. In the post-pandemic period, it is necessary to invest in physical, nutritional, economic, and psychosocial health through organized activities adaptable to changeable public health restrictions. Recommendations for activities include sending patients informational and motivational text messages, providing recipes with accessibly sourced T2D foods, televising educational workshops, making online tools more accessible, and mobilising community and peer support networks. BioMed Central 2023-08-24 /pmc/articles/PMC10463824/ /pubmed/37620814 http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s12939-023-01987-3 Text en © The Author(s) 2023 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article's Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) . The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/ (https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) ) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated in a credit line to the data.
spellingShingle Research
Allen, Lindsay P.
Ellis, Lucia
Engleton, Christophe
Valerio, Valerie Lynette
Hatala, Andrew R.
Voices of those living with type 2 diabetes in Belize: barriers to care before and during the COVID-19 pandemic
title Voices of those living with type 2 diabetes in Belize: barriers to care before and during the COVID-19 pandemic
title_full Voices of those living with type 2 diabetes in Belize: barriers to care before and during the COVID-19 pandemic
title_fullStr Voices of those living with type 2 diabetes in Belize: barriers to care before and during the COVID-19 pandemic
title_full_unstemmed Voices of those living with type 2 diabetes in Belize: barriers to care before and during the COVID-19 pandemic
title_short Voices of those living with type 2 diabetes in Belize: barriers to care before and during the COVID-19 pandemic
title_sort voices of those living with type 2 diabetes in belize: barriers to care before and during the covid-19 pandemic
topic Research
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10463824/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/37620814
http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s12939-023-01987-3
work_keys_str_mv AT allenlindsayp voicesofthoselivingwithtype2diabetesinbelizebarrierstocarebeforeandduringthecovid19pandemic
AT ellislucia voicesofthoselivingwithtype2diabetesinbelizebarrierstocarebeforeandduringthecovid19pandemic
AT engletonchristophe voicesofthoselivingwithtype2diabetesinbelizebarrierstocarebeforeandduringthecovid19pandemic
AT valeriovalerielynette voicesofthoselivingwithtype2diabetesinbelizebarrierstocarebeforeandduringthecovid19pandemic
AT hatalaandrewr voicesofthoselivingwithtype2diabetesinbelizebarrierstocarebeforeandduringthecovid19pandemic