The Relationship between Attributional Style and Mental Health in Diabetic Patients with Good and Poor Metabolic Control of diabetes

Diabetes is one of the common diseases which is increasingly rising in most countries and has wide a range of complications ranging from physical to psychological problems. Given the importance of this disease, this study aims to investigate the relationship between attributional style and general health in diabetic patients with good and poor metabolic control of diabetes. The main research question was that “Is there a relationship between attributional style and general health in diabetic patients with good and poor metabolic control of diabetes?”. The statistical population of the study included all diabetic patients who referred to the medical centers of type 2 diabetes in Tehran. From this population, 82 patients were selected through availability sampling. The research instruments were the General Health Questionnaire (GHQ-28) and the Attributional Style Questionnaire (ASQ). Data was determined based on gender, metabolic control of diabetes, level of education, and frequency. The correlation coefficient and multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) were used to analyze the data. The results of the correlation coefficient indicated that attributional style, as an internal dimension, had a significant relationship with general health in the good metabolic control group while the stable dimension in the poor metabolic control group had a significant correlation with general health (r = 0.341, p = 0.05). In addition, men had better general health than women but no difference in attributional style was found between men and women. Based on this research, changes in attributional style of patients can improve general health of them.