Disrupted Self-Management and Adaption to New Diabetes Routines: A Qualitative Study of How People with Diabetes Managed Their Illness during the COVID-19 Lockdown

When societies went into the COVID-19 lockdown, the conditions under which people with diabetes managed their illness dramatically changed. The present study explores experiences of everyday life during the COVID-19 lockdown among people with diabetes, and how diabetes self-management routines were affected. The data consist of 20 interviews with adults with diabetes, focusing on experiences during the COVID-19 lockdown. The analysis showed that experiences of self-management during lockdown were diverse and that participants handled daily life changes in very different ways. The main changes in self-management related to physical activity and food intake, which decreased and increased, respectively, for many participants during lockdown. We found two main and significantly different overall experiences of everyday life while on lockdown: (1) A daily life significantly changed by the lockdown, causing disruption of diabetes self-management routines, and (2) a largely unaffected everyday life, enabling continuance of diabetes routines. Our findings showed that people with diabetes lacked information about strategies to self-manage diabetes during lockdown and would have benefited from guidance and support throughout the pandemic, or any other crisis, to maintain their diabetes self-management routines.