Privacy Management in the Family and the Workplace: Understanding Information Management Processes of People with Diabetes

In the past twenty years, the number of adults diagnosed with diabetes has more than tripled, with the diagnosis rates expected to continue increasing. While much research has investigated a variety of biophysical and psychosocial health outcomes in clinical contexts for individuals with diabetes, little research examines how individuals with diabetes communicate about their condition with others. These studies explore how employed individuals with diabetes manage family and workplace communication regarding their condition, and how the diabetes-related health outcomes of diabetes self-management behaviors and diabetes quality of life are influenced. Further, these studies use the Communication Privacy Management Theory to examine how the roles of information ownership and information control influence the aforementioned relationships. Results found that both the family and workplace environments play important roles in the process of communicating about diabetes in both the family and workplace contexts