Effectiveness of Group Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy on the Self-Care Behaviors, Psychological Wellbeing, and Hope of Patients with Type II Diabetes

Background & Objective: Diabetes is a chronic disorder and the most complicated disease regarding its management and need for self-management. Cognitive-behavioral therapy plays a key role in self-management and self-regulation. The present study aimed to investigate the effects of cognitive-behavioral therapy on the self-care behaviors and psychological wellbeing and hope indicators in patients with type II diabetes. Methodology: This quasi-experimental study was conducted with a pretest-posttest design and a control group on 30 patients with type II diabetes referring to the diabetes clinic at Razi Hospital in Ahvaz, Iran. The patients were selected via convenience sampling and randomly divided into the test and control groups (15 each). The test group received eight sessions of cognitive-behavioral therapy (90 minutes). Data were collected using the self-care behavior questionnaire by Robert Thompson and Glasgow, Ryff psychological wellbeing inventory, and Snyder's cognitive model of hope at pretest and posttest. Data analysis was performed in SPSS version 21 using multivariate analysis of covariance (MANCOVA) at the significance of 0.05. Results: MANCOVA results indicated that group cognitive-behavioral therapy significantly increased the self-care behaviors, psychological wellbeing, and hope indicators in the patients with type II diabetes (P≤0.05). Conclusion: Group cognitive-behavioral therapy was effective in improving the self-care behaviors, psychological wellbeing, and hope indicators of the patients with type II diabetes. Therefore, this method could be used by psychiatrists and healthcare providers for the enhancement of self-care behaviors, psychological wellbeing, and hope in these patients.