The Effect of Jacobson's Muscle Relaxation Technique on the Psychological Well-Being and Resilience of Patients With Type 2 Diabetes: Randomized Clinical Trial



Abolfazli Z¹ ; Jesmi AA² ; Mahdavifar N³ ; Javan R⁴ ; Mofrad SA⁵ ; Taj A⁶
Source: Journal of Mazandaran University of Medical Sciences Published:2024

Abstract

Background and purpose: One of the main complications of diabetes is psychological problems, such as reduced stamina and psychological well-being. The use of muscle relaxation is a simple, safe, and non-pharmacological method. Therefore, the present study was designed to investigate the effect of Jacobson's muscle relaxation technique on psychological well-being and resilience in patients with type 2 diabetes. Materials and methods: The current study is a two-group randomized clinical trial with a pre-test and post-test design conducted on 40 patients with type 2 diabetes at the Khayyam Diabetes Clinic in 2021. Eligibility criteria included minimum literacy, acceptable hearing, and speaking ability, age between 25 and 65 years, no history of relaxation training, type 2 diabetes for at least 6 months, no smoking and no alcohol, ability to use a computer, poor psychological well-being and resilience (psychological well-being score equal to or less than 63, resilience score equal to or less than 50), and no definite psychiatric disorders. Exclusion criteria included: special medical conditions (such as hospitalization or medical inability to continue treatment), withdrawal from the research, death, unwillingness to cooperate, incomplete completion of questionnaires by members, and failure to perform sedation for more than 4 sessions. The samples were selected using the available methods and then randomly allocated with permutation blocks to two intervention and two control groups. The relaxation technique was then practiced at home by the intervention group once a day for 8 weeks. Rif's psychological well-being questionnaire and Connor's resilience questionnaire were completed by the intervention and control groups at the beginning and end of the intervention. Data were analyzed using the Shapiro-Wilk test for normality, Fisher's exact test, chi-square, and analysis of covariance using SPSS 25 software. Results: The results of the research showed that the two groups were homogeneous in terms of gender, marriage, age, education, history of chronic diseases, history of neuro medications, insulin history, exercise history, peer history, dietary compliance, income, and occupation and there was a statistically significant difference. There was no difference in these variables between the two groups (P>0.05). The results of the covariance test show that the means of the experimental and control groups are the same in terms of patient resilience (P=0.49, eta=0.02). Therefore, it can be concluded that there is no significant difference between the experimental and control groups in terms of patient endurance, controlling for the effect of pre-test means. Also, the means of the experimental and control groups differ in psychological well-being (P=0.00, eta=0.44). Therefore, It can be concluded that there were statistically significant differences between the groups. More specifically, there was a significant difference between the experimental and control groups in terms of psychological well-being, controlling for the effect of pre-test means. Conclusion: Results of the study showed that muscle relaxation training was an effective, practical, and inexpensive method of improving and preventing psychological problems in people with diabetes in the intervention group compared with the control group. © 2024, Mazandaran University of Medical Sciences. All rights reserved.