Document Type
Article
Publication Date
12-17-2016
Abstract
The purpose of this research is to understand the gap between recommended diabetic treatment adherence and what motivates African American patients to adhere to long-term behavioral change. We examine the literature and existing approaches to understanding motivation and treatment adherence, and then present our proposition for increasing the accuracy of the motivational factors related to treatment adherence, followed by our contribution through findings and implications for research. We conducted a qualitative study to understand the factors that motivate African American diabetic patients to adhere to their recommended treatment plan. Our sample was 30 African Americans over the age of 18 with type 2 diabetes. Our interviews revealed that there were significant differences in the characteristics between those who adhered to their recommended treatment plan and those who struggled with adherence. Our data showed that successful treatment was influenced by the patient's coping ability and by their unique internal and external motivational factors affected by positive feedback mechanisms that occurred as a result of supportive or threatening situational events from individuals or their social networks. This research provides implications for healthcare leaders, and providers regarding the patient perspective for improving health regulations and policies encompassing patient-provider communication, patient education, and self-management behaviors.
Keywords
diabetics--care, African Americans, Blacks--United States, physicial and patient, Weatherhead School of Management, self-management behaviors, motivation, patient adherence, coping, patient–provider relationships, feedback occurrences
Rights
© The Author(s). This is an open access work distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-Non-Commercial (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/) which permits non-commercial reuse, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License
Department/Center
Design & Innovation
Recommended Citation
Freeman-Hildreth, Yolonda, "Motivating the African American Patient: What Can Healthcare Leaders Learn About Motivating Type 2 Diabetic Patients to Adhere to Their Treatment Plan?" (2016). Student Scholarship. 312.
https://commons.case.edu/studentworks/312