Taking the Biscuit? A Discursive Approach to Managing Diet in Type 2 Diabetes

Using thematic discourse analysis, this work examines dietary management talk in repeat-interviews with 40 newly diagnosed type 2 diabetes patients and finds women in this study tended to construct dietary practices as an individual concern, while men presented food consumption as a family matter.

Abstract

Adopting and maintaining a healthy diet is pivotal to diabetic regimens. Behavioural research has focused on strategies to modify/maintain healthy behaviours; thus 'compliance' and 'noncompliance' are operationalized by researchers. In contrast, discursive psychology focuses on the actions different accounts accomplish--in this case regarding diets. Using thematic discourse analysis, we examine dietary management talk in repeat-interviews with 40 newly diagnosed type 2 diabetes patients. Women in our study tended to construct dietary practices as an individual concern, while men presented food consumption as a family matter. Participants accounted for 'cheating' in complex ways that aim to accomplish, for instance, a compliant identity. Discursive psychology may facilitate fluidity in our understandings of dietary management, and challenge fixed notions of 'compliant' and 'non-compliant' diabetes patients.