The Effectiveness of Web-Based Motivational Interviewing on Disease Indicators and Health-Related Quality of Life in Patients with Type 2 Diabetes: A Pilot Study

Diabetes is a major challenge for the global health system, especially during the Covid-19 epidemic. This study aimed to determine the effectiveness of Web-Based Motivational interviewing on disease indices and Health Related Quality of Life.

This before and after study with the control groups were conducted with the participation of 30 patients who have type 2 diabetes. These patients were referred to the Imam Khomeini Hospital's endocrinology clinic and Tehran health centers. The sampling method was an available sample that randomly divided into two equal intervention and control groups. Data were collected using health-related quality of life (HRQOL) questionnaire and biological indicators of disease, three-month blood sugar (HbA1c) and fasting blood sugar (FBS). Before the intervention, a pre-test was conducted for two groups. Motivational interviewingsessions were 90-minute sessions for five weeks for the intervention group, but the control group did not receive any intervention. The post-test questionnaires were administered on two occasions, one after two weeks and the other in the follow-up three months after the end of the intervention for the intervention and control groups. The biological indices of the disease were measured in the post-test once after three months. Data were analyzed using analysis of variance test with repeated measurements and SPSS Statistics for Windows, version 26.0 (SPSS Inc., Chicago, Ill., USA).

The mean (SD) of blood sugar for three months HbA1c in the interventional group was decreased from 7.3 (0.43) in the pre-test to 6.88 (0.62) in the post-test (P<0.001)and the sugar Fasting blood from 154.9 (24.9) to 134.8 (24.8) (P>0.001). Web-based motivational interviewingonthree-month blood sugar index (η2 = 0.226; P = 0.011) and fasting blood sugar (η2 = 0.167; P = 0.041) had a significant effect, and this effect was 22% for three-month blood sugar and for Fasting blood sugar was 16%, but it did not affect the health related quality of life.

The study showed that Web-based motivational interviewing decreased three-month fasting blood sugar. But, there was no effect on improving the health related quality of life.