The effect of life skills training on the hardiness in maintaining health and blood sugar of the elderly with Diabetes Mellitus Type 2

Due to the high prevalence of type 2 diabetes and the importance of health hardiness on the physical and mental health of these elderly people. This study aims to determine the effectiveness of life skills training on health hardiness, fasting, and two-hour blood sugar in the elderly with type 2 diabetes.

This was a semi-experimental study with a pre-test and post-test design with a control group. The study population consists of the elderly with type 2 diabetes members of Jahandidegan center in Shiraz, Iran in 2022. Based on the inclusion and exclusion criteria, 30 subjects were selected and randomly divided into two groups, one experimental and one control group.Elderly people who were suffering from type 2 diabetes were evaluated with a demographic form, revised health hardiness inventory-24, and an Avan home blood glucose meter. The experimental group underwent the intervention of 10 sessions of 75 minutes of life skills training, and the control group was waiting to receive the training after completing the study. Data analysis was conducted in the SPSS-24 using a single and multivariate covariance analysis at a significance level of p<0.05.

The findings showed elderly people with an average age of 68.17 years that the experimental and control groups were not significantly different in demographic indicators (P>0.05). Life skills training led to the improvement of health hardiness and two-hour blood sugar of the elderly with type 2 diabetes (p<0.005), but it had no effect on fasting blood sugar (p>0.05).

The present study showed that life skills training can increase health hardiness and decrease two-hour blood sugar in the elderly with type 2 diabetes. The use of this simple and useful method is recommended by mental health specialists and therapists in the field of geriatric rehabilitation.