Experiences of transformative learning in social life events for chronic disease management

Many researches about chronic disease management were mostly in the view of post-positivism, but there were varieties of individual’s experiences in social life events. Thus, this research aimed to understand transformative learning process in social life event to attitude transformation and developed program for chronic disease management appropriately. The transformative learning theory and symbolic interactionism were both used as theoretical framework. Data was triangulated by literature reviewing, field visiting observation and interviewing. From data analyzing, the result showed that transformative learning process in social life events consisted of disoriented dilemma for awareness, reflective dialogue for self-exploration, premise determining for new symbol interpretation and attitude diversification by symbolic interpretation stimuli repetitively. After that, the transformative learning program was applied to change attitude and improve self-care practicing for chronic disease management. In conclusion, the transformative learning in social life events (4 D: dilemma, dialogue, determine premise, diversify attitude) could be used in chronic disease management to transform attitude for risk factor prevention.