Comparison of the Effectiveness of Mindfulness and Psychological Well-being Education on Anxiety and Self-care Behaviors in Patients with Type II Diabetes

Diabetes is the most common chronic metabolic disease, which plays an important role in reducing health and quality of life. Accordingly, diabetic patients suffer from high anxiety levels and low self-care behaviors. The present study aimed to compare the effectiveness of mindfulness and psychological well-being education on anxiety and self-care behaviors in patients with type II diabetes.

This semi-experimental study was conducted using pretest-posttest design and a control group. The statistical population included all patients with type II diabetes who were the members of Tehran Diabetes Association living in districts 1-3 in Tehran, Iran. After reviewing the inclusion criteria, 75 people were selected using the purposive sampling method and randomly assigned into three groups of 25 people per group. The experimental groups (n=2) participated separately in 10 mindfulness and psychological well-being training sessions for 90 minutes (two sessions per week). On the other hand, the control group was placed on the waiting list for education. The data were collected using an anxiety inventory and revised diabetes self-care behaviors scale. Subsequently, they were analyzed in SPSS software (version 19) through the chi-square test, multivariate analysis of covariance, and Bonferroni post hoc test.

The results showed that mindfulness and psychological well-being intervention significantly decreased anxiety and significantly increased self-care behaviors in patients with type 2 diabetes, compared to the control group (P0.05).

According to the results of the present study, mindfulness and psychological well-being education methods can be utilized to improve the health-related characteristics of the patients with type II diabetes, decrease anxiety, and increase self-care behaviors.