Table 4.

Examples of barriers and enablers to a healthy lifestyle (from formative research)^a.

Enablers	Barriers
General
Allah gave you life it’s your responsibility to keep it healthy	Fate determines diabetes/health status
Care-seeking
Diabetics tend to go for check-ups/testing if they feel unwell	Lack of consistency in taking medicines: patients may decide themselves that they feel better and stop taking medication
Diet
Family support and encouragement to change eating habits i.e. all eating ruti in the evenings, mother cooking ‘healthy’ foods, daughter encourages grandmother to eat with less salt etc.	Family not changing or supporting different eating habits i.e. husband demanding food is cooked with more oil, wife not changing cooking practices
Physical activity
Can integrate walking into routine (walking children to school, going to the shops, walking to work etc.)	Social acceptability: Not always socially acceptable for women to be walking outside and judgements made
Smoking
Knowledge: greater public awareness of health and smoking i.e. warnings of cigarette packages and doctor’s advice	Knowledge: overall general unawareness about the harmfulness of smoking to health No awareness regarding smoking and the link to diabetes
Stress
Some coping mechanisms identified: talking to someone, music, religious rituals etc.	‘Unhealthy’ coping mechanisms: smoking, taking too many or unnecessary pills

^aThere are some empty cells in this tables. This is because where possible we match barriers to enablers. If there is not a matching enabler or barrier we leave the corresponding cell blank.