The Effectiveness of Acceptance and Commitment Therapy on Perceived Stress, Chronic Pain and Treatment Adherence in Diabetic Elderly

Diabetic elderly people face with many problems including increased perceived stress and chronic pain and reduced treatment adherence. Therefore, the aim of this study was to determine the effectiveness of acceptance and commitment therapy on perceived stress, chronic pain and treatment adherence in diabetic elderly.

This study was quasi-experimental with a pretest and posttest design with a control group. The research population was consisted of elderly diabetics who referred to the health centers of Rafsanjan, which 30 people of whom were selected as a sample after reviewing the inclusion criteria and randomly were replaced into two equal groups. The experimental group received 8 sessions of 90 minutes the acceptance and commitment therapy based on the protocol of Vowles et al (2007) and the control group remained on the waiting list for training. The research tools were included Cohen et al.'s perceived stress questionnaire (1983), Melzak's pain questionnaire (1975), and Toobert and Glasgow's diabetes self-care activities questionnaire (1994). Data were analyzed by multivariate analysis of covariance test in SPSS version 25 software.

The findings showed that there was a significant difference between the experimental and control groups in terms of all three variables of perceived stress, chronic pain and treatment adherence in diabetic elderly. In the other words, acceptance and commitment therapy reduced perceived stress and chronic pain and increased treatment adherence in diabetic elderly (P<0.001).

Based on the findings of this study, health professionals and therapists can use acceptance and commitment therapy along with other treatment methods to reduce perceived stress and chronic pain and increase treatment adherence in vulnerable groups including the diabetic elderly.