effect of group counseling based on cognitive-behavioral approach on self-care behaviors and Illness perception of middle-aged women with diabetes type 2:A quasi-experimental study

Illness Perception and and self-care behaviors are essential element in treatment and  management of   patients with diabetes .

study is a quasi - experimental study with two groups of intervention and control in parallel with pre - test, post - test and one month control in Isfahan comprehensive health centers. For each group, 32 middle-aged women with type 2 diabetes were selected by convenience sampling. Both groups received routine care of diabetic patients, but the experimental group received a cognitive behavioral group counseling program. Data were collected through demographic questionnaire, The Illness Perception Questionnair, and Summary of diabetes self-care activity  
checklist. Data was analyzed by SPSS software using descriptive statistics, chi-square test and independent t-test with significance level of 0.05

There were no significant differences in self-care behaviors (t = -0.0222, P-value = 0.859) and illness perception (t = -0.178, P-value = 0.859) in the pre-test. But in the post-test, the intervention group showed a significant improvement in self-care behaviors (t = 4.25, P-value = 0.01) and disease perception (t = 3.93, standard deviation = 0.87). There was also an improvement in self-care behaviors (t = 4.41 and P-value = 0.014) and illness perception (t = 414 and P-value = 0.01) in the follow-up period, indicating the persistence of changes in counseling

Group counseling based on cognitive-behavioral approach can enhance the perception of disease and self-care behaviors in type 2 diabetes. Therefore, it can be used as a therapeutic approach to medication for  patients with T2DM