Overcoming diabetes burnout is empowering: The descriptions of adults with type 1 diabetes in YouTube videos

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Anusha Vora, Samereh Abdoli, and Amit Vora

University of Tennessee, USA

: Endocrinol Diabetes Res

Abstract

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Background: Diabetes burnout is one of the most common contributors to decreased quality of life, poor psychosocial well-being, and increased morbidity, mortality and diabetes cost. While the term diabetes burnout is widely accepted particularly in type 1 diabetes (T1D), the state of the science on diabetes burnout is lacking a systematic approach to overcome diabetes burnout. An extensive literature review highlighted that no studies explored burnout in the context of diabetes; however, surprisingly the public emphasizes the significance of diabetes burnout in social media.

Objective: The study aimed to explore the strategies to overcome burnout by integrating the voices of individuals with T1D.

Methods: In this study, we applied a descriptive qualitative design using YouTube videos produced by individuals with T1D. Seven YouTube videos (Austria= 1, U.S=6) with the highest rate of views which met the inclusion criteria were analyzed using a qualitative content analysis approach.

Results: Participants verbalized overcoming diabetes burnout as a “difficult hole to climb out of ” which make them empowered. Themes that describes their strategies to overcome burnout in T1D in general include; “make plan and take action”, “start with small steps”, “ask for help”, “ get engage in diabetes community” and “do not be perfect”.

Future Work: These findings can begin the examination of different strategies to overcome diabetes burnout, which may change the course of action for diabetes care and management to improve quality of diabetes care and quality of life.

Biography

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Anusha Vora is a senior at the Webb School of Knoxville who plans to pursue a career as a physician after completing high school. She is an avid member of her school and local communities through her involvement in many different organizations. She is the president of her school’s “Webb MD” medical career program and is also president of Students Against Destructive Decisions (SADD) club. Through both of these organizations she has been able to positively impact her peers by running campaigns for healthier lifestyles in both health and social regards. She recently traveled to the fourth poorest county in the United States for a medical mission trip where she treated and interacted with patients in that area. On her trip, she got a different viewpoint on chronic illness and drug addiction that has impacted her field of study in terms of research. She believes that the psycho-social aspects of medicine are often overlooked and she would therefore like to explore them more in future research projects. Her plans to further her interests in the medical field by majoring in Public Health in college and looks forward to being able to continue her research in Diabetes.

E-mail: vora@webbstudent.org