PMID- 37535596
OWN - NLM
STAT- MEDLINE
DCOM- 20230807
LR  - 20230807
IS  - 1932-6203 (Electronic)
IS  - 1932-6203 (Linking)
VI  - 18
IP  - 8
DP  - 2023
TI  - Plant medicine usage of people living with type 2 diabetes mellitus in Belize: A 
      qualitative exploratory study.
PG  - e0289212
LID - 10.1371/journal.pone.0289212 [doi]
LID - e0289212
AB  - BACKGROUND: Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus (T2DM) is a primary cause of death in 
      Belize, a low-income country with the highest rates in Central and South America. 
      As many people in Belize cannot consistently access biomedical treatment, a 
      reality that was exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic, plant medicine usage is 
      estimated to have increased in recent years. This exploratory study seeks to 
      understand which plants are being used, patterns of usage, and the state of 
      patient-provider communication around this phenomenon. METHODS: Implementing a 
      Constructivist Grounded Theory qualitative design, the research team conducted 35 
      semi-structured interviews with adults living with T2DM, 25 informant 
      discussions, and participant observation with field notes between February 2020 
      and September 2021. Data analysis followed systematized thematic coding 
      procedures using Dedoose analytic software and iterative verification processes. 
      RESULTS: The findings revealed that 85.7% of participants used plants in their 
      T2DM self-management. There were three main usage patterns, namely, exclusive 
      plant use (31.4%), complementary plant use (42.9%), and minimal plant use 
      (11.4%), related to factors impacting pharmaceutical usage. Almost none of 
      participants discussed their plant medicine usage with their health care 
      providers. CONCLUSIONS: Plant species are outlined, as are patients' reasons for 
      not disclosing usage to providers. There are implications for the advancement of 
      understanding ethnobotanical medicine use for T2DM self-management and treatment 
      in Belize and beyond.
CI  - Copyright: (c) 2023 Allen et al. This is an open access article distributed under 
      the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted 
      use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author 
      and source are credited.
FAU - Allen, Lindsay P
AU  - Allen LP
AUID- ORCID: 0000-0002-7870-0301
AD  - Department of Community Health Sciences, University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, 
      Canada.
FAU - Ellis, Lucia
AU  - Ellis L
AD  - Belize Diabetes Association, Belize City, Belize.
FAU - Engleton, Christophe
AU  - Engleton C
AD  - Belize Diabetes Association, Belize City, Belize.
FAU - Valerio, Valerie Lynette
AU  - Valerio VL
AD  - Belize Diabetes Association, Belize City, Belize.
FAU - Hatala, Andrew R
AU  - Hatala AR
AD  - Department of Community Health Sciences, University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, 
      Canada.
LA  - eng
GR  - FRN 130797/CIHR/Canada
PT  - Journal Article
PT  - Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't
DEP - 20230803
PL  - United States
TA  - PLoS One
JT  - PloS one
JID - 101285081
SB  - IM
MH  - Adult
MH  - Humans
MH  - *Diabetes Mellitus, Type 2/drug therapy
MH  - Belize
MH  - Pandemics
MH  - *COVID-19
MH  - Ethnobotany
MH  - Qualitative Research
PMC - PMC10399819
COIS- The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.
EDAT- 2023/08/03 19:14
MHDA- 2023/08/07 06:42
PMCR- 2023/08/03
CRDT- 2023/08/03 13:36
PHST- 2022/07/26 00:00 [received]
PHST- 2023/07/14 00:00 [accepted]
PHST- 2023/08/07 06:42 [medline]
PHST- 2023/08/03 19:14 [pubmed]
PHST- 2023/08/03 13:36 [entrez]
PHST- 2023/08/03 00:00 [pmc-release]
AID - PONE-D-22-20515 [pii]
AID - 10.1371/journal.pone.0289212 [doi]
PST - epublish
SO  - PLoS One. 2023 Aug 3;18(8):e0289212. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0289212. 
      eCollection 2023.