The Comparison of the Effectiveness of Acceptance and Commitment Therapy and Health-promoting Lifestyle Intervention in the Management of Glycated Hemoglobin Levels in Type 2 Diabetes

Non-pharmacological treatment models are offered to the diabetics to better manage their diabetes and blood sugar. This study compared two popular treatments which are evidenced to have an acceptable effect on diabetes. The purpose of this study was to compare the effectiveness of acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT) and health-promoting lifestyle intervention or diabetes self-management program (DSMP) in the management of HbA1c.

Methods: 

A total of 60 patients referred to Tehran Diabetes Treatment centers were selected by convenience sampling and were assigned to three 20-member groups. The first group received ACT intervention, the second group received DSMP intervention, and the third group did not receive any intervention. All the three groups received relevant medications during the study. They were examined for glycated hemoglobin in the three phases of before the intervention, after the intervention and follow-up using blood tests. The data were analyzed using descriptive statistics and mixed-design analysis of variance

The results showed that both ACT and DSMP methods were effective in improving the Management of Glycated Hemoglobin Levels in Type 2 Diabetes (F=5.835, P value<0.005). In addition, the effectiveness was sustained until the follow-up phase (F=26.274, P value<0.001). However, the comparison of the two treatments showed that ACT was more effective than DSMP in post-test and follow-up phases (F=10.902, P value<0.001).

It seems that along with pharmacological treatments, ACT could be significantly effective in the management of glycated hemoglobin levels. Glycated hemoglobin levels were better managed with the lifestyle modification by ACT than DSMP