Contributions of Health Psychology to Support Patients With Diabetes Through Online Tools

Diabetes

With over 4 million people living with diabetes in France, i.e. 6% of the general population, it is necessary to consider both their physical and mental health. Indeed, recent studies have shown that with a good quality of life, patients have better disease management, improved physical health and social life, and reduced anxiety and depressive symptoms. Quality of life is at the heart of this research project. In order to improve it, several psychotherapies can be used, notably those that include mindfulness. Of all those proposed in the literature, Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT), developed by Hayes, appears to be ideally suited to this objective. The aim of this psychotherapy is to improve the patient's psychological flexibility. According to the scientific literature, ACT therapy has been shown to improve the quality of life of patients living with diabetes, as well as their ability to manage their condition and reduce anxiety and depressive symptoms. This research project aims to: 1. To help patients cope better with their illness through learning the different dimensions of ACT therapy in order to obtain a toolbox to use on a daily basis, when necessary. 2. To offer professionals alternatives to the traditional care of diabetic patients with the toolbox cited above. 3. To enable health authorities to take advantage of this program and these different exercises to reduce complications in the medium and long term for people with diabetes and change health behaviors. In 2020, the French Diabetics Federation created the Slow Diabetes movement. The initial objective of which was to help people with diabetes to better cope with their isolation linked to the Covid-19 pandemic. Since its launch, this movement has taken the form of several programs lasting three or six weeks and developed to improve the general well-being of people with diabetes. The research proposed here seeks to improve the quality of life of diabetic patients through online ACT therapy, based on the Slow Diabetes model.

The aim of this detailed description is to present the research protocol of a controlled randomized trial to evaluate the impact of an e-program based on Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) for people living with diabetes in France on the quality of life and the psychological flexibility. The recruitment of participants is done through a call for participation launched by the French Federation of Diabetics, during which patients have access to a Patient Information Notice (PIN) presenting the project. This PIN enable diabetic patients to find out about the different possible groups of the study and the planned randomization. In this way, they will know that they can belong to three different groups : 1) The Slow ACT intervention group, which will follow an intervention based on acceptance and commitment therapy (duration 6 weeks); 2) The Slow Diabetes control group, which will follow a Slow Diabète Summer program (duration 5 weeks - launched by the French Federation of Diabetics); 3) The No program control group, which will not follow either of the two interventions, and will be able to compare the data from the two groups presented above. Finally, 15 of the people in the ACT intervention group were voluntarily recruited to a Single Case protocol. This took place over 14 weeks, with 14 measures (psychological flexibility and quality of life). The content of the e-program ACT in which not all patients have participated is sent to all of the participants of the study at the end of it, for reasons of ethics and fairness.

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