Glycemic Regulation in Patients with Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus: Effects of Motivational Interviewing

INTRODUCTION: Motivational interviewing (MI) is a convenient and effective counseling technique with positive effects on patients with Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus (T2DM), which provides a positive influence on their treatments/follow-up and help them to adopt health-enhancing behaviors. This study investigates whether MI has an effect on improving glycemic control in T2DM patients.
METHODS: This is a retrospective study enrolling 76 follow-up T2DM patients at a family health center who received MI. As a control group, age- and gender-matched 33 T2DM patients who were followed at the same family health center and did not receive MI were recruited. All patients were compared for their age, gender, marital status, education status, duration of diabetes, and HbA1c levels.
RESULTS: In the MI group, T2DM patients had a mean follow-up duration of 22.63±11.93 (3-38) months vs. 24.33±11.29 (3-36) months in the non-MI group (p=0.489). At the end of this follow-up period, the HbA1c level dropped from 8.30±2.10% to 7.68±1.48% (p=0.006) in the MI group, whereas the decrease in the non-MI group was from 8.12±2.14% to 7.93±1.16% which was not statistically significant (p=0.504).
DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION: In this study, it was shown that MI provided a significant decrease in HbA1c levels in T2DM patients. MI helps blood sugar regulation by creating lifestyle changes in T2DM patients. MI is a method that can be applied in clinical practice by family physicians working in primary care, who play an important role in the follow-up and treatment of T2DM patients.