Table 1.

Perceived benefits of group-based and telephone-based one-to-one peer diabetes interventions

	Themes	Example quotations
Group intervention	Common culture may facilitate understanding	With the group, it’ll build trust because they’re from my community, they’re from my neighborhood so, you know, they understand what I’m going through. So that’ll give more people an opportunity to come in and be a part of that group.
	Have mutual interest in learning about diabetes	I sometimes tell my friends, ‘Ay, I feel like this and like that,’ and sometimes I feel as if I’m bothering them because they don’t share my disease…So if we’re in a group… we all want to know what to do to, in order to ease that load.
	Receiving advice and sharing ideas	Because in these support groups, one learns something. We learn from the others, things that I may not think of.
	Learning about self-empowerment	So, in other words, it’s not like ok, well, I need to wait till the doctor tells me what I have to do. Here with empowerment and going to these classes, they are now putting it in your hands, so you’re the one who controls how your diabetes is. It’s either diabetes is gonna control you or you’re gonna control your diabetes
	Provides motivation to improve self-management	I think that when one starts to come to the meetings, one starts getting more motivated.
	Prefer the groups be held at church because it is a familiar place	I think it would have to be here at the church because it’s a central location…if all the information is coming out of this church then this would be a good location for people that come. And I think they feel a bit more comfortable because it’s, you know, it’s church.
	May lead to one-on-one peer program	So you feel more comfortable with that person and then little by little you get to know the person and from there you start, you start your own little buddy system.
Telephone-based one-to-one	Getting advice/sharing ideas	Yes, and find out what works for one. Perhaps someone drinks a tea and feels good and tells the other, “Well, I drank that tea. You should drink it.” In other words, share ideas, exactly.
	For companionship/friendship	Once or twice [contact per week], yes, because for one who lives alone, that doesn’t have any relatives or anything. I also don’t have any more relatives, my kids and I, and well… Yes, one is always in need of more friends.
	To receive and give motivation and emotional support	Well, it’s good because, for example, there are a lot of people that are like the lady, alone, that don’t have any goals, or similar, right? So then, if one has somebody’s phone number and calls them, “Hi, how do you feel today? How are you? Is your sugar high? Do you feel sad?” or “go out, get up, go for a walk, do something…” Right? It’s providing support to the other person, and that seems like a good idea, to have someone like a partner or someone else that one can call each day or one day a week early in the morning, or invite to go out. “Come on, let’s go out. We’re going for a walk or for coffee.”
	The convenience of speaking on telephone	Many times, when the climate is too cold, imagine having to leave the house. It’s better over the phone. “And how have you been? How’s your sugar? What have you done? What’s fun?” “Well I started watching the soap opera.” “Why the soap opera?” [Laughter]
	As a way to know what happened in class if unable to attend	So if you and I are buddies, I can, I come and I provide you the information, and if another time I can’t, you come and you provide me the information, ok. That’s how it would be, well yes.
	Partner incompatibility not a concern	Yes, well I think that talking with someone is a friendship. I don’t think there would be problems, right? I don’t think so, since there are many cases, since sometimes one says, you think that, but it’s only as friends, to talk to each other as friends. I believe that there wouldn’t be a reason to clash there, I believe, but if it were to happen, I would also get rid of them.