What are the self-management experiences of the elderly with diabetes? A systematic review of qualitative research.

backgroundThe number of elderly individuals with diabetes is dramatically increasing. Diabetes is a long-term condition and a noncommunicable disease and requires intensive daily self-management. Understanding of self-management from the patients' perspectives is important to nurses, healthcare providers, and researchers and benefits people by improving their self-management skills.

aimTo examine and synthesize qualitative studies that explore the experiences of elderly people in self-managing diabetes.

methodsElectronic databases were searched, including MEDLINE, CINAH, PsycINFO, PubMed, CNKI, and WANFADATA. Relevant research was identified by manually searching reference lists and gray literature. Only English and Chinese publications were included. The Critical Appraisal Skills Program was used to assess the quality of the research. The Confidence in the Evidence from Reviews of Qualitative research approach was used to assess the confidence of the findings.

resultsA total of 10 qualitative studies were included, and content analysis was performed. Five themes were identified: The need for knowledge about diabetes care, support systems, functional decline, attitudes toward diabetes, and healthy lifestyle challenges.

conclusionThis present review provides a deep and broad understanding of the experiences in the self-management of diabetes and can be valuable to nursing practice and provide recommendations for future research.