Abstract
Living with diabetes, as a lifelong illness, is interlaced with learning and to face
continual changes. However, the role of time in this learning process is not yet well
understood. The overall aim of the thesis was to gain a deepened understanding of
learning to live with diabetes for those recently diagnosed and over a three year period.
The thesis, involving four studies where qualitative inductive content analysis (I, III)
and phenomenological hermeneutical interpretation (II, IV) were used, has a lifeworld
approach and a qualitative and longitudinal design. Thirteen persons, recently diagnosed
with diabetes (type I or II), were interviewed on three different occasions over a three
year period. All interviews focused on the experience of living with diabetes and
situations where diabetes had to be taken into account. The aim of study I was to reach
an understanding of how learning to live with diabetes is experienced in the first 2
months after diagnosis. The findings revealed to be taken over by a new reality, with a
body that played a role in life with the health care service as a necessary partner. The
aim of study II was to illuminate the meaning of learning to live with diabetes three
years after being diagnosed. The findings revealed learning as making decisions through
use of different sources of information and as solving the life-puzzle – a delicate balance
to create a desired life. The aim of study III was to identify patterns in learning when
living with diabetes, from recently being diagnosed, and over a 3-year period. In the
findings five patterns were identified illuminating different learning processes emerging
over time. A longer time living with diabetes did not per se mean increased satisfaction
in living well with illness or increased confidence in understanding one’s own needs.
The aim of the IV study was to illuminate the meanings of trigger situations in learning
to live with diabetes. The findings revealed trigger situations, such as being encumbered
by vulnerability and temporality in unsustainable situations with an unpredictable body
and a life involving new concerns for the future. The thesis conducted that learning was
an informal and ongoing everyday process in life. Time living with diabetes meant both
an increased mastery of a changed life situation, but also increased difficulties in
achieving well-being and with a dependency on health care. Hence, health care
interventions must adhere to the individual’s needs and not be based on duration of
illness. Understanding the body and the role of health care, as well as what facilitates
and hampers learning, changed with time. It is therefore important that health care
personnel illuminate the individual understanding and experiences of those living with
diabetes as this was found to be important for the learning process as well as for their
sense of well-being.
