“A Patient Should Not Have to Ask”: Women’s Experiences of Patient Education About Preconception Care for Type 2 Diabetes

Author(s)

Laura E. Britton, Columbia University
Adriana Arcia, University of San DiegoFollow
Guneet Kaur, University of California, Los Angeles
Oluwatomisin Sontan, Columbia University
Cassondra J. Marshall, University of California, Berkeley
Maureen George, Columbia University

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

2023

Journal Title

Patient Education and Counseling

Volume Number

112

DOI

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pec.2023.107739

Version

Publisher PDF: the final published version of the article, with professional formatting and typesetting

Disciplines

Nursing

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.

Digital USD Citation

Britton, Laura E.; Arcia, Adriana; Kaur, Guneet; Sontan, Oluwatomisin; Marshall, Cassondra J.; and George, Maureen, "“A Patient Should Not Have to Ask”: Women’s Experiences of Patient Education About Preconception Care for Type 2 Diabetes" (2023). School of Nursing and Health Science: Faculty Scholarship. 46.
https://digital.sandiego.edu/nursing_facpub/46