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Background: African Americans chronically managing their diabetes benefit from receiving support from peers with shared experiences. Peer support is known to improve the well-being of individuals receiving support, however, there is limited literature on the experiences of those providing the support. The Peers Supporting Health Literacy, Self-efficacy, Self-Advocacy, and Adherence (Peers LEAD) program pairs Peer Ambassadors who are adherent to their diabetes medication, with Peer Buddies who need support with their medication adherence. Peer Ambassadors engage with Peer Buddies as they receive diabetes information, develop the skills and motivation to address identified psychosocial/sociocultural issues to enhance their diabetes medication adherence. This study qualitatively explores the experiences of African Americans who provided peer support in the Peers LEAD medication adherence intervention. Methods: Two focus groups were conducted with twelve Peer Ambassadors to explore their experiences of providing peer support in the Peers LEAD medication adherence intervention. Qualitative content analysis was conducted using an inductive open coding approach. Results: Emergent themes provided insight into Peer Ambassador' rationale for providing peer support and the benefits and challenges they experienced in their roles. Themes regarding their rationale included: their desire to receive support for their diabetes self-management as well as to contribute to their communities in reducing the stigma associated with diabetes. The perceived benefits they gained centered on creating interpersonal connections, experiencing personal growth as they adapted to their roles, and experiencing opportunities to contribute to an intervention regardless of professional training. Peer Ambassadors reflected on the challenges which included difficulties on coming to terms with their role as Peer Ambassadors, seeing African Americans experience complications associated with diabetes, and navigating supporting Peer Buddies who are also burdened with the challenges their family members are experiencing with managing their diabetes. Conclusions: This study provides unique insight to what motivates individuals to provide peer support and what they gain from these experiences despite the challenges. Understanding the experiences of peers participating in such interventions may help inform the structure and content of programs that use peer support to focus on the benefits of and the motivation for participating in the program. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives: African Americans (AAs) have higher rates of medication nonadherence compared to non-Hispanic whites. In this study, we determined the preliminary feasibility of an 8-week intervention focused on improving culturally-informed illness and medication beliefs, self-efficacy, and medication adherence. Methods: We used purposeful sampling to recruit 8 peer ambassadors (PAs), individuals constituting the advisory board of AAs adherent to their medicines, and 7 peer buddies (PBs), assessed as non-adherent to their diabetes medicines. PAs and PBs were paired. They completed 2 group educational sessions together and one follow-up phone call to PBs by PAs. Results: PAs were mostly female (N = 5, 63%), mean age of 55 years (± 8.3). Similarly, PBs were mostly female (N = 6, 86%), mean age of 56 years (± 6.3). Follow-up interviews with PBs revealed that they liked discussing medication management strategies and diabetes management resources, sharing their diabetes experiences with their PA and connecting with them over the phone. All PBs reported a positive, trusting relationship between them and their PAs. Conclusions: This study demonstrates AAs with diabetes medication adherence challenges are receptive to a peer support mechanism to address culturally informed beliefs and enhance patient-provider communication and self-efficacy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]