Diabetes-by-Proxy

Virtual Embodiment of Disease by Oklahoma Choctaw Parents of Children with Type 1 Diabetes

Dados Bibliográficos

ID2288973
AutoresJ N Henderson (0000-0002-9974-4709, American Indian Diabetes Prevention Center University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center), Linda D Carson (American Indian Diabetes Prevention Center University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center), Alisa Tomette (0000-0001-7844-9594, American Indian Diabetes Prevention Center University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center), Amanda Ha (0000-0002-2148-023X, University of Minnesota, Duluth), Amanda Hass (Duluth campus Memory Keepers Medical Discover Team University of Minnesota Medical School), Kama King (American Indian Diabetes Prevention Center University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center)
Ano2021
Volume35
Fascículo1
Páginas25-42
Data de publicação2021-03-01
Peer ReviewedSim
Open AccessSim
TipoARTICLE
PeriódicoMedical Anthropology Quarterly (JOURNAL)
Identificadores do periódicoISSN: 0745-5194 • E-ISSN: 1548-1387
EditoraWiley (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1111/maq.12581
PMID32524666
OpenAlexW3032922596
IdiomaEN
Citações recebidas8
Referências citadas29

Childhood type 1 diabetes is increasing globally and requires meticulous at-home care due to risks for fatal outcomes if glucose levels are not continuously and correctly monitored. Type 1 diabetes research has focused on metabolism and stress measurements confirming high parental worry levels. However, research on caregivers' management strategies has lagged. We show parents' intense, all-encompassing work to preempt a disastrous drop in their child's glucose as a stress-path to the virtual embodiment of their child's condition. That is, parents acquire diabetes-by-proxy. Our findings derive from four and half years of ethnographic research with the same 19 families in the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma. These parents were exceptionally engaged as caregivers and distressed by the potentially fatal outcome of type 1 diabetes mismanagement. Diabetes-by-proxy names the parents' experience and validates clinical attention to them as they cope with their crucial caregiving commitment

Anxiety · Developmental psychology · Diabetes mellitus · Disease · Proxy (statistics · Psychiatry · Type 1 diabetes · Type 2 diabetes · Worry · Diabetes Management and Research · Food Security and Health in Diverse Populations · Infant Health and Development · Medicine · Psychology · Endocrinology · Gerontology