Table 1.
Themes emerging as a result of inductive coding and their explanations
| Main theme | Subtheme | Definition/explanation for corresponding subtheme |
|---|---|---|
| Presence of FTP with a sense of T2DM ownership | Securing social independence (50) | Emphasis on autonomy/independence in social life, such as earning money, having a role in the community and family, or maintaining high activity of daily living. Unlike another subtheme, “prioritizing avoiding being a burden on family and friends,” which is characterized by a concern that the individual may become a burden to their family and friends, the focus is on the desire to maintain their own place in society by retaining their physical abilities in future |
| Planning on living a long and healthy life (42) | Conviction that the treatment of diabetes will lead to a long, healthy, and happy life. Although this theme does not necessarily include an explicit aim or purpose of treatment for the future, the responses in this theme clearly indicate the presence of a perspective suggesting that the participants consider the relationship between diabetes and their future life as their own affairs. As with this theme, the responses in the theme “valuing improvement of diabetes” do not explicitly disclose the aim or purpose in the future. However, the theme “planning on living a long and healthy life” puts the focus on health in the relatively distant future, while the focus of theme “valuing improvement of diabetes” is on health in the near future such as daily medication and regular hospital visits | |
| Prioritizing avoiding being a burden on family and friends (35) | Fear of becoming a burden on family, kin, or friends for their nursing care as a result of impersistent treatment and concerns about negative consequences for interpersonal relationships due to treatment withdrawal. This theme is unique for its focus on interpersonal relationships in the future. Both this theme and “avoiding tragic results” place the emphasis on the effort to decrease the chances of a negative future | |
| Valuing improvement of diabetes (30) | Focuses on persistent treatment contributing to a better future. Although the responses included in this theme are somewhat speculative, they represent a certainty that persistent treatment leads to positive results. This theme should be distinguished from the theme “planning on living a long and healthy life” by its focus on the near future | |
| Avoiding tragic results (8) | Intention to avoid severe physical outcomes of diabetes in the future, such as leg amputation and diabetic cataract. This theme is characterized by avoidance rather than escape, referring to the acquaintances’ actual experiences regarding such severe outcomes or advice from medical professionals. This theme is distinguished from the theme “prioritizing avoiding being a burden on family and friends” by its focus on the risks of type 2 diabetes for physical health, while both themes have a pessimistic future perspective in common | |
| Optimistically viewing treatment as a form of self-development (5) | Very positive perspective in which individuals have many growth opportunities for themselves to know the life with diabetes and its treatment; in other words, they consider the experience of the disease and treatment to gain new knowledge about their body, mind, lifestyle, and society | |
| Improving mental health (3) | Appreciation of treatment engagement as a reasonable option for achieving better mental health; life with diabetes makes individuals anxious, and the anxiety will be reduced by undergoing treatment. In other words, engagement in treatment is a means of improving mental health | |
| Absence of FTP with a sense of T2DM ownership | Lack of consciousness of disease (5) | Attitude of individuals who do not have a clear future time perspective, characterized by inactive and passive engagement in treatment and recognition of diabetes as a disease that is totally unrelated to their life and health |
| Living a dissipated life (3) | Situation in which he/she cannot quit unhealthy lifestyle habits, such as binge drinking and eating, despite being fully aware of the outcomes of such habits. Although they may have an FTP, they may be caught up in unproductive thoughts and/or lifestyles |
The number of fragments included in each subtheme is indicated in the brackets. The number of fragments was inconsistent with the number of participants since their answers could be matched with multiple themes