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Table 4 Categories and examples of meaning units for theme 1: Reaction to diagnosis

From: “I have got diabetes!” – interviews of patients newly diagnosed with type 2 diabetes

Category (Subcategory)

Meaning units

Denial (Skepticism, unexpected diagnosis)

Well, first and foremost there’s complete denial [on being diagnosed] because I haven’t noticed any symptoms (Interviewperson (IP) 7)

so I’m still a bit skeptical about the diagnosis … wonder if it’s confirmed (IP7)

I haven’t noticed anything, but because I fly I have to go to the doctor once a year and so he discovered it (IP1)

Guilt (Shame, disappointment)

[that you yourself are partly to blame] I think about these lifestyle diseases, they hit you because you have a lifestyle that’s not really okay, and then that maybe we have a society that enables the lifestyle, that’s another matter, but there’s nothing really to say that you have to adopt it (IP9)

so this was quite a shock in a way, although in a way it wasn’t, but unfortunate … I didn’t want this (IP9)

it’s not much fun talking about it, I hope I can stop […] it’s the disappointment about ending up in this situation (IP9)

Acceptance (Neutral attitude, logical consequence)

[having diabetes] doesn’t mean much [to me] … I’ve been through so much shit all my life, I don’t react, I live as I live (IP6)

it’s a common process at my age that you get it [diabetes] (IP2)

I was so prepared for [the diagnosis] and I had felt it in my body and I knew I was overweight … I knew that we have had type 2 diabetes in the family […] I knew what to recognize (IP10)