Systematic Literature Review On the Barriers and Facilitators to Diabetes Self-Management for Women of Colour

Objective: To provide insight into self-management issues experienced by women belonging to Black African/Black Caribbean(BB), Hispanic/Latin American(HLA), and South Asian(SA) populations in order for healthcare professionals to better meet their needs.  

Methods: This systematic review consisted of a comprehensive literature search, screening of articles for relevance, assessment of quality, data extraction and synthesis utilizing thematic and SWOT (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats) analysis.

Results: 25 articles were chosen for inclusion. The data yielded four levels of factors that modify the conditions for self-management of diabetes: personal factors, social network, healthcare provider, and physical and social environment. In regards to personal factors the literature revealed an overwhelming majority of weaknesses. These included issues pertaining to lack of diabetes knowledge, perception of disease, and reported challenges to self-management. The literature illustrated that family and friends can contribute to the conditions of self-management through relational support and understanding the disease. Two evident themes under healthcare provider include the diabetes education provided by healthcare professionals and the relational aspect of their communication. The majority of the findings within the external environment were identified as threats to self-management. Common themes in this category describe the women’s access to and use of resources.

Conclusion: The employment of the SWOT matrix allows for the determination of both helpful and harmful internal and external factors to diabetes self-management based on the findings from the literature. These findings identify diabetes self-management issues across three ethnic groups that healthcare providers and educators can use to better meet the needs of their patients.