Abstract

Objective: Type 2 diabetes have become a highly prevalent disease among the Danish popula-tion, hence management and treatment are crucial. Previous research has shown that physical activity is effective in treating type 2 diabetes, thus health interventions aim to help patients make and maintain a physical active lifestyle through education and physical activity. Howev-er, patients struggle to maintain a physically active lifestyle after the completion of the health intervention. The purpose of this study was therefore, to investigate why type 2 diabetes pa-tients struggle to maintain a physical active lifestyle after the completion of a health interven-tion in the Region of Northern Jutland, Denmark.
Methods: Data were collected through questionnaires and semi-structured interviews with twelve patients (66.5±10 years) that had completed a three-month health intervention in the Region of Northern Jutland. Interview was conducted by telephone and questionnaires were distributed by email, immediately after the intervention, and three-months after the comple-tion of the intervention.
Results: The three basic psychological needs; autonomy, relatedness and perceived compe-tence, was connected to physical activity maintenance among the type 2 diabetes patients. Relatedness was found to have direct impact on maintenance three-months after the health intervention. Furthermore, the analysis revealed several other themes; being motivated, tak-ing ownership, changes to the health intervention, physical activity habits and barriers.
Conclusion: The need for autonomy, relatedness and perceived competence are important factors for physical activity maintenance among T2DM patients after completing a health in-tervention. Especially relatedness was found to be important. Moreover, a more individual-ized approach, to target patients interest, might be needed to increase intrinsic motivation among the patients and thereby adherence to physical activity.