P-35 The Use of WhatsApp messages as a Support Mechanism for Type Two Diabetes Meletus (T2DM) in a community setting during COVID-19
Author(s):
B Toppin, N Greaves
Year of Presentation:
2022
Objective: To explore the role and applicability of the social media platform WhatsApp for supporting Type II-Diabetes Meletus self-management in a community setting.
Design and Methods: Qualitative Secondary Analysis of 155 A4 pages of single text WhatsApp messages occuring from March 2020 to August 2020 between five female patient participants and seven health care support personel in a community-based diabetes project in Barbados. Support personel were five trained lay persons (Health Advocates) one nutritionist and a researcher. An interpretivist philosophical paradigm informed inductive coding and thematic analysis with constant comparison. Data was managed with Atlas.ti 9.
Results: Participants perceived that the WhatsApp chat assisted them with successfully normalizing Blood Sugar, improving their dietary habits and weight-management. Additionally, the social media tool aided diabetes reversal by increasing self-management, and resilience in lock-down periods during the COVID-19 pandemic outbreak in Barbados; providing access to health care in the context of disrupted face-to-face support.
Conclusion: Diabetes self-management and reversal can be aided in the virtual setting using low-cost social media 2.0 tools such as WhatsApp. These tools may be useful in NCD management in the context of other socially isolating circumstances- including on non- pandemic related situations e.g., persons who live in remote rural, or alone. More research is needed to assess the usefulness and ease of implementation of such virtual interventions.