‘WHY THIS, WHY NOW, WHY ME’: REACTIONS OF PATIENTS NEWLY DIAGNOSED WITH TYPE 2 DIABETES MELLITUS AT A HOSPITAL IN GHANA

Diabetes is a devastating condition pigeon-holed by long-lasting hyperglycaemia which results from the lack of insulin produced by pancreas and/or insulin's inability to function properly or correctly. This results from the metabolism of carbohydrates, lipids as well as proteins. Individuals living with chronic conditions like diabetes mellitus are confronted with life threatening experiences which can affect life in general, and cause intense or dramatic changes to their daily lives as well as their families. Such experiences following diagnosis of diabetes mellitus may provoke reactions or emotions such as fear, anger, guilt, regrets, embarrassment, violent and weariness to mention a few in patients with diabetes mellitus. Feelings as well as emotional reactions to diagnosis of an illness are part of life in general and successively influence persons who are diagnosed. It has been observed that emotions and feelings of a patient ensuing diagnosis of a chronic illness may affect the person's judgment to conform or not with the instructions provided by the healthcare workers. Hence, the psychosocial suffering which may result from the effects of the illness situation and its routine management may make it rough for patients to follow exact fundamental recommendations like glycaemic control, a factor which is very crucial for active or tangible treatment. Apart from cultural, social, economic, physiological and physical matters associated with patients' care, it is equally important to know patients' emotional reactions, since they impact patients' behaviour when having to deal with a chronic disease such as diabetes mellitus. The study employed hermeneutic phenomenological approach to qualitative research, and specifically used a semi-structured interview guide to collect data. A semi-structured interview guide allowed the researcher to ask open ended questions to make sure that the conversation with the research respondent's focus on pertinent issues associated with diabetes patients' reactions to diagnosis. Hermeneutic phenomenological investigation was consequently able to uncover reaction experiences of patients newly diagnosed with type 2 diabetes mellitus. In all, 27 type 2 diabetes patients were interviewed until data saturation occurred. Data was analyzed using content analysis approach by Creswell (1998), in which verbatim transcribed information from the research participants were read and reread to get meanings, out of which themes were formed and finally theme categories were advanced and findings were presented to depict the phenomenon under study. The findings focused on six major reactions of patients newly diagnosed with type 2 diabetes mellitus. The reactions were based on (1) participants' prior interactions with family members who have been diagnosed with diabetes mellitus (2) what the participants had read about diabetes (3) participants' perception that there was no evidence of weight dwindling to warrant diabetes (4) participants' perception that something ‘erroneous or incorrect' has been done to cause diabetes (5) participants' previous professional/lay knowledge and understanding of diabetes mellitus, as well as (6) participants' conviction that there is nonexistence of diabetes in their families to acquire the disorder. The research also revealed the participants' determination to move on with diabetes mellitus, the point of resolution, in the face of the challenges accompanying the disease. It is recommended that since patients' reaction experiences of a disease is likely to influence their treatment seeking behaviours, to accomplish improved efficacy in their treatments, healthcare workers need to recognize their exceptional reaction experiences which may offer a healthier understanding of how to manage them adhere to diabetes treatment.