Patient Centered Studies Focused on Type 2 Diabetes Management, Education, and Family Support: A Scoping Review

Background: Although a large amount of research has been conducted in diabetes management, many of the articles do not focus on patient-centered questions and concerns. To address this shortcoming, patients and various other stakeholders from three northern Mississippi communities co-created research questions focused on Type 2 diabetes management. Objective: To identify the diabetes management literature pertaining to each of the six patient-developed research questions from March 2010 to July 2020. Methods: A scoping review was conducted via PubMed to identify research articles from March 2010 to July 2020 focused on patient-centered Type 2 diabetes studies relevant to the six research questions. Results: A total of 1,414 studies were identified via the search strategy and 34 were included for qualitative analysis following article exclusion. For one of the research questions, there were no articles included. For the remaining research questions, the number of articles identified ranged from two to eleven. After analysis of the included articles, it was found that these questions either lacked extensive data or had not been implemented in the practice of diabetes management. Conclusion: Additional research is warranted for three of the five questions, as current evidence is either lacking or contradictory. In the remaining two questions, it seems that adequate current research exists to warrant transitioning to implementation focused studies wherein data may be generated to improve sustainability and scaling of current programming.