Understanding ‘context’ in the self-management of type 2 diabetes with comorbidities: A systematic review and realist evaluation

Coping with diabetes in the context of people's lives requires attention to issues that are often outside the remit of the person with diabetes, the health care team, and the health system within which self-management is located. Realist evaluations illuminate programme mechanisms and fine-tune context. They aid initial understandings of how an intervention or programme is thought to work, in order to influence and (re)design (new) programmes.