Investigating the effect of transcendental meditation on spiritual wellbeing of Type-2 diabetic amputees: A clinical trial study

Abstract

Objectives: Diabetes is a chronic, progressive and life-threatening metabolic syndrome that causes physical complications such as amputation, psychological complications and crisis in one's life, which leads to increased expression of spirituality and increased use of spiritual support as a coping mechanism. The aim of the present study was to investigate the effect of spiritual care on the spiritual wellbeing of type-2 diabetic amputees. Materials and methods: In the present clinical trial study, 54 type-2 diabetic amputees were randomly divided into two groups; namely, experimental and control in 2014 and underwent transcendental meditation (TM) in three sessions. The 20-item spiritual well-being scale (SWBS) (Paloutzian and Ellision), which measures the spiritual well-being dimensions, was completed by patients before and after the intervention. Data analysis was performed using descriptive and inferential methods (paired T-test, independent t-test, Fisher's exact test, mann-whitney test, and chi-square) in SPSS ver. 16. Results: The results showed no statistically significant difference between the experimental and control groups in terms of mean spiritual wellbeing before the intervention, but, the post-intervention mean spiritual wellbeing score in the control and experimental groups was 97.82 ± 9.25 and 88.40 ± 9.47, respectively. (α = 0.05) (P = 0.001). Conclusion: According to the results of the present study, it seems that spiritual care is able to improve the spiritual wellbeing status of individuals.

Keywords

• Clinical psychology
• Pediatrics
• Alternative medicine
• Evidence-based medicine
• Clinical research
• Type 2 diabetes