Table 3.
Theme: Perspectives on important topics to cover in Peers EXCEL
| Subthemes | Quotes |
|---|---|
| Address mental health issues resulting from living with diabetes | “[People] just think, [diabetes] is the end of my life as I know it. That’s how they look at it. And it’s not true. You can live with it. It’s manageable … They become very, very depressed. So I think having that addressed would be great.” – Peers LEAD Participant #11 |
| Discuss relationships between systemic racism and diabetes in the African American community | “So it was not lost on our facilitators that, periodically, the question would come up, ‘Why are there just Black people in this class?’ It wasn’t specifically [limited to Black people] … Having conversations about the reality of… things like systemic racism, actually, is very relevant to this class because it’s part of the reason why [not everyone] would… have been receptive to certain individuals coming in and trying to facilitate the class.” – HLWD Facilitator #4 |
| Set reachable personalized goals | “Making sure to emphasize that the goal can’t be so high where it’s going to frustrate you because you’re not reaching it or maintaining whatever you said your activity [goal] was going to be.” – HLWD Facilitator #6 |
| Provide information on how to reduce medication cost | “There are things that we can do to help bring down the exorbitant costs. I know I got scared when I saw how much my medication [cost]. if I had to pay out of pocket, I just wouldn’t have it. But there are ways to bring costs down. Because that was kind of a powerful discussion we had in our group, there were things that was mentioned that people did not know.” – Peers LEAD Participant #5 |
| Learn how to read nutrition labels | “How to read [nutrition] labels for content … because if you think you’re eating a Lean Cuisine, and you think it’s healthy for you, if you can read the contents, you’ll know that it’s not.” – Peers LEAD Participant #9 |
| Explore holistic approaches to diabetes management, including alternative medicine and exercise |
“The topics are wonderful. But I think there needs to include like instead of medication, a holistic approach to it…So if, different teas, different herbs, things such as that, if that could be shared, and if it’s really true that it work, that would be good to educate African Americans on without having to take a lot of medication.” – Peers LEAD Participant #1
“One of the things that was initially touched on in Peers LEAD about fitness and working out and weightlifting and, you know, just being a little bit more active. I wish that would’ve been … focused on a little bit more.” – Peers LEAD Participant #3 |