The Effectiveness of Online Cognitive-Behavioral Stress Management Training on Blood Glucose Control and Problems in Sexual Function of Married Women with Diabetes During the Coronavirus Pandemic: A Quasi-Experimental Study

Diabetes mellitus, like any other chronic illness, causes the person with the disease to experience problems that affect all aspects of the daily life of the individual. This study aimed to investigate the effectiveness of online cognitive-behavioral stress management training on blood glucose control and problems in sexual function of married women with diabetes during the pandemic of coronavirus.

This experimental study was conducted with a pretest-posttest design with a control group. The statistical population included all diabetic married women referred to the Parsian Diabetes Clinic in Tehran in year 2022. At first, 30 people were selected by convenience sampling method and then randomly divided into two groups of 15. For the people in the experimental group, the online cognitive-behavioral stress management training was implemented in 8 sessions, each session lasting 90 minutes, but the control group received no training and remained in the waiting list. The instruments used in this study included Diabetes Management Self‐Efficacy Scale of Bijl (1999) and Quality Of Life of Boyer and Earp (1997). Data was analyzed using multivariate analysis of covariance.

The results indicated that online cognitive-behavioral stress management training significantly improved problems in sexual function of women with diabetes (p=0.022, F=5.934). However, online cognitive-behavioral stress management training was not effective in reducing blood glucose control in women with diabetes (p=0.188, F=0.668)

According to the obtained results, it can be said that cognitive-behavioral stress management can be used in quarantine conditions during the outbreak of infectious diseases such as Corona, and diabetic patients can use this method to reduce their problems in sexual function.