Table 2.

Forum discussion series 1 – major themes for research topics

Theme	n	Description
Post 1a. What’s important? Research topics to help people living with T2DM (N=33)
Comorbidities interacting with T2DM	18	Management of comorbidities, along with T2DM, interactions among comorbidities’ symptoms
Control of T2DM	16	Better understanding of how to improve control of T2DM, including adherence
Cure for T2DM	9	A cure for or reversal of T2DM
Causes for T2DM	4	Root causes for T2DM
Post 1b. How does research apply to you – or not? (N=10)
Direct applications	6	Patients have directly applied research to their self-management
Gaps in research	5	Patients identify gaps in research, where research does not apply to their unique needs
Post 1c. Why do you look for information about T2DM? (N=19)
Self-advocacy	11	To gain information to help them ask better questions of their provider
Inadequate information elsewhere	9	Information given by providers is inadequate
Seeking improvement	8	To improve results of self-management

Note: Themes are not mutually exclusive; participants were not limited in the number of themes they could discuss.

Abbreviation: T2DM, type 2 diabetes mellitus.