The prevalence of type 2 diabetes
(T2D) is relatively high among people
with a low socioeconomic status
(SES). As lifestyle is crucial in T2D
management, patients are advised
to live healthily, but incorporating
lifestyle changes in daily life is not
easy. It may be even more difficult
for people with a low SES, as they
often struggle with more urgent
issues in daily life that supersede
healthy lifestyle. How to promote
a healthy lifestyle such that the
needs of low SES patients are met?
A boundary condition is a thorough
understanding of the target group,
and of the differences between
individuals in this group. Too often,
people with a low SES receive either
general advice, or advice targeted to
literacy level or ethnic background,
whereas the diversity within the low
SES population is much wider than
that.
We developed personas to identify
archetypes of the target group,
each reflecting a distinct pattern
in goals, attitudes and behaviours,
to help grasp the diversity of the
target group. Ten interviews with
low SES T2D-patients revealed
their perceptions and experiences
related to what is important in life, a
healthy lifestyle, living with diabetes,
and lifestyle advice. Following
Goodwin’s persona development
methodology (2011), three groups
were qualitatively extracted from
the data. In short, the personas are:
1) the worrisome caregiver: wants
to live healthier, but is incapable of
incorporating advices into one’s life;
caring for others is first priority; 2)
the conscious self-confident: willing
and able to follow up advice in order
to reduce medication use; 3) the selfwilled
survivor: dealing with multiple
(health) issues, and dedicated to solve
things one’s own way. Each persona
likely responds differently to health
promoting strategies. Additional
research is needed to enrich the set
of personas, for example by verifying
them with the target group’s family or
health professionals.