The effectiveness of acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT) on health anxiety, psychological resilience, and quality of life in patients with type 2 diabetes

Introduction: The present study aimed to investigate the effectiveness of acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT) on health anxiety, psychological flexibility, and quality of life in patients with type 2 diabetes.
Methods: The research method was a quasi-experimental study with a pre-test-post-test design with a control group and a three-month follow-up period. The statistical population of the study included patients with type 2 diabetes referring to medical centers in Tehran in 1405. From this population, 30 people were selected by convenience sampling and randomly assigned to two experimental and control groups (15 people in each group). The research instruments included the Salkoskis and Warwick Health Anxiety Questionnaire (2002), the Dennis and Vanderwaal Cognitive Flexibility Questionnaire (2010), and the World Health Organization Quality of Life Questionnaire (WHOQOL-BREF). The experimental group participated in eight 90-minute group sessions of acceptance and commitment therapy, while the control group did not receive any intervention. Data were collected in three stages: pre-test, post-test, and follow-up. Repeated-measures analysis of variance and SPSS version 26 software were used to analyze them.
Results: The results showed that acceptance and commitment therapy significantly reduced health anxiety and increased psychological flexibility and quality of life in patients with type 2 diabetes (P<0.01). The effects of this intervention also remained stable at the three-month follow-up stage
Conclusion: Therefore, it can be concluded that acceptance and commitment therapy can be used as an effective psychological intervention in improving the mental state and improving the quality of life of patients with type 2 diabetes.