Out of the mouths of Peer Leaders: Perspectives on how to improve a telephone‐based peer support intervention in type 2 diabetes

OBJECTIVE: To explore the experiences of peer leaders with respect to delivering core components of a 12-month, telephone-based peer support intervention in type 2 diabetes within a tertiary-care setting. METHODS: Seventeen peer leaders were recruited and interviewed. Interviews lasted approximately 20 to 45 min, were audio-taped, and transcribed verbatim. The transcripts were analysed by two team members using the qualitative descriptive approach. FINDINGS: Peer leaders reported mutually beneficial and reciprocal relationships with participants. They encountered challenges in maintaining regular contact with participants and in motivating them to make lifestyle changes. To improve the programme, peer leaders suggested having more frequent - but shorter - training sessions and reducing the diabetes education component of the training programme. To enhance the intervention fidelity and retention rate, they recommended matching peer leaders to participants on more meaningful variables (e.g. diabetes-related commonalities, personality, life experiences, etc.) beyond just gender, geographic proximity and availability. They also requested more frequent face-to-face contacts with participants (Modality of Contact), and additional ongoing support from the research team. CONCLUSION: Peer leaders were satisfied with the intervention design. However, future studies may consider more comprehensive peer leader-matching algorithms and increased opportunities for in-person communication modalities. CLINICALTRIALS: gov Identifier: NCT02804620.