Recorded presentation

Julie Lager, MS, Department of Health&Kinesiology, Texas A&M University, 4243 TAMU, 158P Read Building, College Station, TX 77843-4243, 979-862-8574, jlager@hlkn.tamu.edu and Ranjita Misra, PhD, CHES, Health&Kinesiology Department, Texas A&M University, 4243 TAMU, 158P Read Building, College Station, TX 77843-4243.

This study examined the relationship among spiritual growth, acceptance of diabetes, diabetes management, and quality of life in 180 Type 2 diabetic patients. The hypothesis was that spiritual growth is significantly associated with patients’ acceptance of diabetes, encourages diabetes self-care activities and enhances their quality of life. Spiritual growth, a subscale of health promotion lifestyle profile, was measured by 8 items (alpha =0.81). Acceptance has three subscales (outlook, confidence, inhibition), quality of life has 6 subscales (daily hassles, diet, physical complications, leisure, social relations, worry), and self-care activities was measured by difficulty in daily management of diet, physical activity, blood glucose monitoring, record keeping, and taking medications. Bivariate correlation showed spiritual growth was significantly correlated with acceptance of diabetes, self-care activities, and quality of life i.e., diabetic patients with higher participation in spiritual growth activities had higher acceptance of diabetes and its seriousness, experienced less difficulty in their management of the disease, and reported a better quality of life. Regression analysis with quality of life as the dependent variable indicated inhibitors, a subscale of acceptance, was a significant predictor for five of the six subscales of quality of life. Other predictors that attained significance in the models were spiritual growth, blood glucose monitoring, difficulty in managing diet, exercising, keeping a record of diabetes and taking medications, age, knowledge, social support, and gender. The models explained 11% - 49% of the variance in the quality of life subscales.

Learning Objectives:

• Describe the relationship between spiritual growth, acceptance, diabetes management, and quality of life among Type 2 diabetic patients
• Discuss possible strategies for improving acceptance and quality of life among diabetic patients

Keywords: Diabetes,

Presenting author's disclosure statement:
I do not have any significant financial interest/arrangement or affiliation with any organization/institution whose products or services are being discussed in this session.

Recorded presentation