The added value of narratives in the understanding of adolescent's experiences with diabetes

Evidence shows that living with diabetes during adolescence is a challenging experience. Besides the disease and treatment implications, it is important to comprehend how young people make sense of and manage their illness. Illness perceptions have been associated with a range of physical and mental health outcomes in adolescents with chronic disease. In order to contribute to a better understanding of the adolescent's experiences with diabetes, this study aimed at(1) describing illness perceptions of young people with diabetes(2) ; understanding whether and in what ways, an in-depth analysis of the adolescent's narratives, offers additional insight into their experience of living with diabetes. Participants were 32 adolescents with diabetes, aged 12 to 18 years, who completed the Brief Illness Perception Questionnaire and wrote a text about"What it is like to have diabetes". Narratives were analysed with thematic analysis and illustrate how adolescents experience their disease, and the strategies adopted by them to maintain a sense of normalcy. Significant associations with the scores for illness perceptions were found, as for example, adolescents who reported a better understanding of their illness, evaluated the experience of having diabetes as less restrictive (r = -0,445; p = 0.011). The use of narratives proved very informative on the adolescent's experiences with diabetes. For clinical interventions aimed to promote the adaptation of young people with diabetes, this study findings address the need to focus on normalizing their lives, and to promote more positive illness beliefs and coping strategies, to balance the restrictive impact that diabetes has on adolescent's lives.