Barriers to structured diabetes education attendance: opinions of people with diabetes

The UK’s National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) diabetes guidelines recommend structured patient education with an annual update for every newly diagnosed patient. It is undeniable that patients will need to attend the education sessions in order to reap their benefits, but promoting attendance at diabetes education centres can sometimes be problematic. The aim of this study was to explore the barriers associated with non-attendance at diabetes education sessions in the UK. A qualitative approach was adopted using telephone interviews (n=24) of newly diagnosed patients with type 2 diabetes who failed to attend their appointments following referral from their general practice surgeries. Thematic analysis was used to analyse the data. Researchers found that various personal reasons such as work, childcare problems, bad weather, holidays and ill-health were responsible for non-attendance. The study identified barriers relating to perceived seriousness of the medical condition and potential benefits of attending diabetes education sessions. Additionally, the process of inviting patients had an influence on attendance. Whilst some of the reasons require a simple solution, it may be challenging to mitigate some others