The Effect of Group Counseling on Physiological Aspect of Self-care and HbA1C Level of Patients with Diabetes Type II

Abstract

Background: The most important underlying cause of death in diabetic patients is poor self-care. The effect of education on self-care promotion has been widely investigated; however, the advisory role and impact of the treatment team have been scarcely investigated. <br/>Aim: Determining the effect of group counseling on the psychological aspect of self-care and level of glycosylated hemoglobin in the patients with diabetes type II. <br/>Methods: In a randomized clinical trial, 73 patients with type II diabetes mellitus, who had been referred to Parsian Diabetes clinic of Mashhad in 2014, were divided into two groups of intervention and control. The group counseling program was performed in five 1.5-hour sessions with 3-day intervals, and each groups consisted of 8 to 10 people. The content of the meetings was problems in nutrition, exercise, diabetes mellitus disease, diabetes-related mental health problems, diabetes medications, and self-control of blood glucose. Researcher-made diabetes care questionnaire was filled and HbA1c test was measured before and two months after the intervention. Data were analyzed by SPSS version 11.5 using paired sample and independent t-tests_. <br/>Results: In this study,27.3 percent of the subjects were male and 72.7 were female with the mean age of 49.1 ± 8.3. The scores of physiological aspect of self-care and HbA1C of the diabetic patients before the intervention was not significantly different between the groups; but in the post-intervention phase, the self-care in intervention group (49.1±5.8) significantly increased compared to the control group (31.8±12.2) (p<0.001). In the post-intervention phase, HbA1C in the intervention group significantly decreased (8.3±0.9) compared to the control group (9.1±1.4) (p<0.006). <br/>Conclusion: Group counseling might help to improve the diabetes self-care. Therefore, it can be added to the conventional training programs for better management of this chronic illness.