Background: Diabetes mellitus is the third leading cause of non-communicable diseases in South Africa that can be prevented by promoting preventive and control measures. However, it has been found that most patients with type 1 diabetes mellitus fail to comply with the recommended lifestyle due to a lack of knowledge and support. Informing patients with diabetes mellitus on how to prevent and manage type 1 diabetes mellitus is important in order to prevent increases in the rate of diabetes mellitus and the development of complications. Objective: We aim to explore and describe the experiences of Type 1 diabetes mellitus patients in relation to self-care management. This is one of the objectives of a larger research project. Method: The objective was accomplished using a qualitative, explorative, and descriptive research design. Face-to-face semi structured interviews were conducted with 12 type 1 diabetes patients between 12 and 30 years of age at the two selected district hospitals and five clinics in the province of Limpopo. The participants were selected purposively. Tesch’s inductive, a descriptive open-coding technique, enabled the researchers to analyze and report subthemes that emerged from this qualitative explorative and descriptive data. Measures ensuring trustworthiness and ethical consideration were taken throughout the study. Results: Most of the participants reported positive and negative experiences. They seem to have some understanding of and information on self-care management. However, there are barriers that prevent them from managing themselves effectively. These include financial barriers, including the inability to buy glucose machines or strips for monitoring their glucose levels as required or to afford food on the diet plan; information barriers, including a lack of knowledge on specific aspects such as types of exercises and ways of measuring nutrients; treatment barriers, namely, missing a treatment due to pain when injecting the insulin and a lack of privacy; and psycho-social barriers, particularly a lack of knowledge leading to actions that negatively affect a participant’s psychological state. Suggested solutions include providing glucose machines and strips and financial assistance, raising awareness in society, and advertising web-based programs and enrolling patients to ensure participation and usage to achieve compliance with self-care measures with competency. Conclusions: Financial costs and a lack of knowledge are the major barriers preventing compliance with type 1 diabetes mellitus self-care management. Provision of financial assistance and the use of mHealth can improve self-care management and knowledge distribution amongst type 1 diabetes mellitus patients in rural areas like Limpopo province and elsewhere.
Author Contributions
Conceptualization, T.J.M.; methodology, T.J.M.; software, T.J.M.; validation, T.J.M. and G.O.S.; formal analysis, T.J.M.; investigation, T.J.M.; resources, T.J.M.; data curation, T.J.M.; writing—original draft preparation, T.J.M., G.O.S. and T.E.M.; writing—review and editing, T.J.M. and G.O.S.; visualization, T.J.M.; supervision, T.J.M.; project administration, T.J.M.; funding acquisition, T.J.M. All authors have read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript.
Funding
This research received no funding.
Institutional Review Board Statement
This study was conducted according to the guideline of the Declaration of Helsinki and was approved by the Turfloop Research Ethics Committee (TREC) TREC/61/2024: PG.
Informed Consent Statement
Informed consent was obtained from all subjects involved in the study. Written informed consent has been obtained from the participants to publish this paper.
Data Availability Statement
The datasets that support the findings of this study are available on request from the corresponding author, T.J.M. because the data contains information that could jeopardize the privacy of the participants, it is not publicly available.
Conflicts of Interest
The authors declare no conflict of interest. The authors declare that they have no financial or personal relationship that may have inappropriately influenced them in writing this article.
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