Effectiveness of Compassion-focused Therapy on the Quality of Life of Women with Gestational Diabetes

Abstract

Introduction and purpose: Gestational diabetes mellitus is the most common metabolic complication during pregnancy that affects 10-15% of all pregnancies depending on the diagnostic criteria. This study aimed to determine the effectiveness of compassion-focused therapy on the quality of life of mothers with gestational diabetes. Methods: This semi-experimental study was conducted based on a pretest-posttest design with a control group and follow-up. The statistical population of the study included all pregnant women referring to Milad Hospital in Tehran, Iran, in 2019, diagnosed with gestational diabetes. The samples (n=30) were selected using a purposeful sampling method (considering inclusion and exclusion criteria) and then randomly assigned to two groups of compassion-focused therapy and control (n=15 each). The experimental group received self-compassion training, while no intervention was administered to the control group. Both groups were followed up for 3 months. The research tool was the quality of life of the World Health Organization. The collected data were analyzed in SPSS.22 software using a repeated measure test. Results: The results showed that compassion-focused therapy had a significant effect on improving the quality of life (P<0.01) of women with gestational diabetes. Moreover, the effect of compassion-focused therapy remained constant until the follow-up phase. Conclusion: It can be concluded that compassion-focused therapy had an effect on improving the quality of life of mothers with gestational diabetes, and this method can be used to reduce the problems of such mothers.

Keywords

• empathy
• females
• gestational diabetes
• quality of life