About the project
How can you get involved
Staff
Background
Diabetes is a condition that affects many people across the world. People who do not manage their diabetes well can develop complications that can lead to blindness or even amputation of their limbs. In 2015, about 3.8 million people in England had diabetes with most of them having T2DM. Studies have shown that this disease affects us differently. People from minority ethnic backgrounds like black Africans have higher chances of developing T2DM, especially from a younger age. They also tend to develop complications and have worse outcomes.
The NHS spends £9 billion a year to treat diabetes and manage any complications. Despite this, people are still not taking the medications they are given by their healthcare professionals. This may be because of several reasons such as people facing challenges with taking their medicines. Some people may also prefer to use other medicines like herbs or change their diets so that they can manage their condition better. The challenge is that there is not enough information on how people can use some of these other medicines or herbs safely.
Aim
By doing this research, we will work with people who have T2DM to understand how they manage their condition. We will then develop a website or an application with reliable information on how to safely manage their condition using diet and herbal medicines.
Design
We will speak to 25-30 black Africans with T2DM. The interviews will be 45-60 minutes long and will take place by video call or telephone. The interviews will be recorded and transcribed into written text, and they will be analyzed by the research team.
We will use the information from these interviews to design the website or application. We will also discuss with other researchers to continue developing this website. To find out what people with T2DM think about using the new website/ application, we will ask them to give us feedback through “think-aloud interviews”. This is where they will use the website and say aloud what they are thinking or why they chose a particular page. We will use this information to further develop and refine this website/application.
Public involvement
This work is funded by the National Institute for Health Research and by Pukka Herbs Limited. We will work with many local organizations to include voices from different black Africans throughout the research.
Dissemination
The findings will be shared with the people involved in this research. We also aim to make the website/application available to as many people living with T2DM.
There are several ways in which you can get involved in this research.
-
Become a Public Contributor: With your experience of having diabetes, you can offer your independent views to help inform, shape, and guide this research. You will work closely with other researchers and develop skills in the research process.
More information on being a public contributor can be found here.
-
Register to take part in the study: As part of this research, you can take part in a telephone, video call or face-to-face interview with a researcher to talk about your experience of living with diabetes.
Click here to register your interest in this study.
This project is being led by Immaculate Okello who is an NIHR SPCR funded postgraduate student.