Continuous Glucose Monitors among Adults with Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus in the Primary Care Setting: Qualitative Study Informed by Technology Acceptance Model and Health Belief Model
ABSTRACT
Background:
Continuous Glucose Monitors (CGM) reduce the burden of glycemic monitoring and improve glycemic control, quality of life, and healthcare utilization. Despite expanded insurance coverage and adoption, barriers remain especially in primary care. Existing research largely evaluates specific populations or interventions, leaving limited insight into broader primary care experience.
Objective:
To examine the experiences of adults with T2D using CGM in primary care, guided by the Health Belief Model (HBM) and Technology Acceptance Model (TAM).
Methods:
16 participants (interviews n=12 and 1 focus group (n=4)) were recruited for the study with a mean age 57 years. 69% identified as Black, 69% as female, and 94% use public insurance. Six themes emerged: disease susceptibility, disease severity, influential drivers, perceived ease of use, perceived usefulness, and attitude toward using CGM. All participants found CGM helpful and would recommend it to others. While affirming numerous barriers well-described in other populations, this study uniquely describes the burden of co-morbidities, the trust in CGM data compared to glucometer-based monitoring, and the reliance on receivers to use CGM technology in this patient population.
Results:
16 participants (interviews n=12 and 1 focus group (n=4)) were recruited for the study with a mean age 57 years, 69% identified as Black, 69% as female, and 94% use public insurance. Six themes emerged: disease susceptibility, disease severity, influential drivers, perceived ease of use, perceived usefulness, and attitude toward using CGM. All participants found CGM helpful and would recommend it to others. While affirming numerous barriers well described in other populations, this study uniquely describes the impact of co-morbidities, the trust in CGM data compared to finger-prick monitoring, and the reliance on receivers to use CGM technology, in this patient population.
Conclusions:
CGM is valued by adults with T2D in primary care, yet barriers remain. Tailored support for initiation, troubleshooting and education (especially alarm management and data interpretation) are needed. These insights can inform scalable strategies to enhance CGM use and experience in primary care.
Citation
Request queued. Please wait while the file is being generated. It may take some time.
Copyright
© The authors. All rights reserved. This is a privileged document currently under peer-review/community review (or an accepted/rejected manuscript). Authors have provided JMIR Publications with an exclusive license to publish this preprint on it's website for review and ahead-of-print citation purposes only. While the final peer-reviewed paper may be licensed under a cc-by license on publication, at this stage authors and publisher expressively prohibit redistribution of this draft paper other than for review purposes.