Exploring Self-care Experience of Patients with Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus Using Persona Method: A Preliminary Study

Objective: This research aims to investigate the self-care experience of type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) patients and create personas. Background: As a prevalent chronic condition, T2DM necessitates sustained self-management to mitigate and manage potential complications. Mobile health (mHealth) interventions have emerged as supportive tools for facilitating patient self-management. However, due to the variety of patient characteristics and requirements, the construction of personas could help develop an individualized self-management system. Method: This investigation involves seven semi-structured interviews with T2DM patients in rural Cheongyang and urban Seoul. These dialogues are recorded, transcribed, and analyzed using NVivo, a qualitative data analysis software. Results: The inductive thematic analysis yields three themes corresponding to self-care behaviors-dietary habits, exercise and physical activity, and hospital visits. Patient self-care experiences across these themes are described with three researcher-developed personas. Conclusion: Three personas were created with key determinants of self-care behaviors: education level, availability of a caregiver or household structure, and socioeconomic status. Application: The personas created in this study may serve as valuable tools to inform the design of mHealth applications for T2DM patients.