Objective: To optimise participation with Aboriginal people by sharing experiences of living with the challenges of diabetes in rural south-western Canada, and how these could be addressed.
Design: Qualitative content analysis of semi-structured and conversational interviews.
Setting: Diabetes health services in the Bella Coola Valley, British Columbia, Canada.
Subjects: Eight Nuxalk Nation participants, five women and three men, living with type 2 diabetes, were interviewed. Four of these participants, three women and one man, were engaged in six follow-up conversational interviews.
Main outcome measures: The descriptive research explored experiences of Nuxalk people living with the challenges of diabetes, and how these could inform diabetes health services in culturally specific ways.
Results: Challenges included understanding the connections between (i) diabetes and western or traditional medicines; (ii) dietary changes, exercise and weight loss; (iii) how health professionals communicate and the relevance of what is said; (iv) having many life choices and the responsibility to choose; and (v) a belief in living day by day and an awareness of life cycles that may need to be broken.
Conclusion: The study substantiated the fundamental necessity for diabetes health services to be inclusive of Aboriginal perspectives.