Overview #
Co-Designing a Digital Campaign to Tackle Diabetes Stigma with Stakeholders examines how people living with Type 2 Diabetes, healthcare professionals and communication experts can shape anti-stigma messaging together. The research identifies campaign principles that move beyond individual blame and promote collective support across digital platforms.
Abstract #
Stigma towards people living with Type 2 Diabetes (T2D) remains a significant barrier to health equity, undermining self-management, mental wellbeing, and engagement with healthcare services (Browne et al., 2013). While social media campaigns offer powerful tools to reach diverse audiences (Naslund et al., 2016), few studies (Betton et al., 2015) explored how to design anti-stigma messaging that moves beyond individual blame to foster collective support across digital platforms. This research addresses that gap by investigating how multi-stakeholder co-design can inform the development of cross-platform health communication campaigns aimed at reducing T2D stigma.
Overview #
Stigma towards people living with Type 2 Diabetes (T2D) remains a major barrier to health equity. It undermines self-management, harms mental wellbeing, and reduces engagement with healthcare services (Browne et al., 2013). However, while social media campaigns can reach diverse audiences (Naslund et al., 2016), few studies (Betton et al., 2015) show how to design anti-stigma messaging that moves beyond individual blame and builds collective support online. Therefore, this research addresses that gap by examining how multi-stakeholder co-design can inform cross-platform campaigns to reduce T2D stigma.
In May 2025, the team ran six online co-design workshops with 45 participants. Specifically, these included people living with T2D (n=16), healthcare professionals (n=15), and experts in communication, marketing, and social media strategy (n=14). The team organised two sessions per stakeholder group. Overall, group sizes ranged from 7 to 9 participants for people with T2D, 7 to 8 for healthcare professionals, and 6 to 8 for communication experts. During the sessions, participants took part in scenario-based discussions, reflective exercises, and collaborative message prototyping.
Next, the team used reflective thematic analysis to identify key themes and priorities. As a result, five core insights emerged.
First, participants described stigma at internalised, interpersonal, and structural levels. In particular, many highlighted self-blame as especially harmful, as it led to emotional withdrawal and reduced engagement with care.
Second, participants pointed to persistent public misconceptions. For example, many people believe T2D is self-inflicted, reversible through weight loss alone, or purely diet-related. Consequently, these views fuel stigma and reduce empathy.
Third, the group co-produced a dual-framing strategy. On the one hand, this included personal empowerment narratives (e.g., “I didn’t choose diabetes, but I choose to live with strength”). On the other hand, it incorporated collective accountability messages (e.g., “Blame doesn’t lower blood sugar – support does”). In addition, the team developed campaign slogans such as #SupportDontBlame, #T2DxFairness, and “Don’t Blame Me, Support Me” to anchor the campaign identity.
Fourth, participants defined core campaign values. These included compassion, empathy, respect, honesty, and a non-judgemental tone. Importantly, they stressed the need for content that feels both emotionally engaging and educational.
Finally, participants identified TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter as the most suitable platforms for delivering these messages.
Access #
Zhaozhang Sun – University of Birmingham (z.sun.4@bham.ac.uk)
Location #
Key words #
Type 2 Diabetes, Stigma, Social Media, Co-Design, Digital Health Campaign
