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. 2023 Jul:112:107739.
doi: 10.1016/j.pec.2023.107739. Epub 2023 Apr 6.

"A patient should not have to ask": Women's experiences of patient education about preconception care for type 2 diabetes

Laura E Britton  1 , Adriana Arcia  2 , Guneet Kaur  3 , Oluwatomisin Sontan  4 , Cassondra J Marshall  5 , Maureen George  6
Affiliations

"A patient should not have to ask": Women's experiences of patient education about preconception care for type 2 diabetes

Laura E Britton et al. Patient Educ Couns. 2023 Jul.

Abstract

Objectives: To characterize perspectives and experiences regarding preconception care (PCC) patient education among women with type 2 diabetes.

Method: Descriptive, qualitative research design. Thirty-two English-speaking women with type 2 diabetes identifying as Black and/or Latina, ages 18-40 years old, participated. We conducted semi-structured interviews about PCC perspectives and experiences which we analyzed with conventional content analysis. To enhance rigor, we collected freelisting data from which we calculated salience scores. We triangulated our qualitative findings with salience scores.

Results: We identified three themes. Our first theme concerned mismatch between women's desires for PCC counseling to be frequent in contrast with their experiences of its infrequency. Our second theme captured how women felt responsible for initiating care in the clinical encounter but uncertain about what they "should" be asking for. Our third theme characterized women's perspectives on receiving information about PCC and pregnancy planning.

Conclusions: Young adult women with type 2 diabetes who are Black and/or Latina welcome more education about how PCC can prevent obstetrical complications associated with diabetes, which disproportionately affect their communities.

Practice implications: Our findings provide actionable suggestions for improving acceptability and accessibility of PCC patient education in the United States where PCC awareness and uptake are low.

Keywords: Diabetes mellitus, Type 2; Minority health; Preconception care; Self-management; Women.

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Conflict of interest statement

Declaration of Competing Interest Authors have no financial and personal relationships with other people or organizations that could inappropriately influence (bias) their work. Dr. Maureen George is a speaker and consultant with AstraZeneca and Sanofi Regeneron and a consultant for Genentech and Teva for related to her expertise in asthma, which is unrelated to this project. Britton, Arcia, Kaur, Sontan, and Marshall report no conflict of interest.

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