title: Taking the biscuit? A discursive approach to managing diet in type 2 diabetes.
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.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Life and Health Sciences, Aston University, Birmingham, UK. e.a.peel@aston.ac.uk
authors.forename: Elizabeth
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Peel
authors.forename: Odette
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Parry
authors.forename: Margaret
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Douglas
authors.forename: Julia
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Lawton
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D002755:Choice Behavior / Q000502:physiology; D003924:Diabetes Mellitus, Type 2 / Q000178:diet therapy* / Q000523:psychology; D004034:Diet Surveys; D003927:Diet, Diabetic / Q000523:psychology*; D005190:Family / Q000523:psychology; D005260:Female; D005518:Food Preferences / Q000523:psychology; D015438:Health Behavior; D007722:Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice; D006801:Humans; D007407:Interviews as Topic / Q000379:methods; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010349:Patient Compliance / Q000523:psychology*; D012737:Sex Factors