Evaluation of the effectiveness of religion-based cognitive-behavioral therapy (RCBT) on emotion expression and blood sugar levels in patients with type 2 diabetes

Diabetes is one of the chronic diseases that affect various physical, mental and social aspects of life. The aim of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of religion-based cognitive-behavioral therapy (RCBT) in expressing emotion and blood sugar in patients with type 2 diabetes (T2D).

In this quasi-experimental study with pre-test and post-test design as well as control group, 30 patients were selected as final sample among T2D patients, referred to Comprehensive Health Service Centers using a purposive sampling method. Then, they were randomly divided into two groups (experimental and control groups) of 15 persons. The experimental group received 10 60-minute sessions of RCBT, but the control group only received normal care. Data were analyzed using multivariate analysis of covariance (MANCOVA) observing the assumptions.

There was a difference between the experimental and control groups after the emotion expression test with pre-test control (P=0.03, F=3.95) at 95% confidence level (P<0.05) in emotion expression and in fasting-blood-sugar (P=0.02, F=5/93) There is a difference. But at 2-hour post-prandial blood sugar (P=0.2, F=1.71) and glycosylated hemoglobin (P=0.65, F=2.68), despite the difference in the mean, the difference is not statistically significant.

The results have indicated that RCBT is effective in increasing the emotional expression of diabetic patients and can be useful in reducing fasting blood sugar as an adjunct therapy for diabetic patients.