The Effect of Writing Gratitude in Buku Syukur Beta on Depression Severity in Type-2 Diabetes Mellitus Patients

Abstract

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), diabetes mellitus (DM) is the 6th and 5th cause of death worldwide (2015) and in Indonesia, respectively. Compared to non-diabetic, patients with DM are reported to be about 1.4–3 times to suffer from comorbid depression. Previous research has shown that writing a gratitude journal every day for three weeks affected pure neural altruism. Therefore, this study aimed to provide the effect of writing the expressions of gratitude in Buku Syukur Beta (BSB) on depression severity in type-2 DM patients. This is a single-blind randomized control trial (RCT) study in twelve (12) type-2 DM patients. The research subjects were the members of Program Pengelolaan Penyakit Kronis (Prolanis) at Oepoi Public Health Center, Kupang, Indonesia; mostly classified as elders. The study has the test and control group, consisting of six patients. For 60 days, the test group appreciated the BSB daily for 10 minutes or 2–5 sentences, while the control group wrote their daily activities in a diary (Buku Harian Beta). The depression severity was measured before and after treatment with the Patient Health Questionnaire-9 (PHQ-9). The independent samples t-test showed a significant reduction in depression severity with a p-value of 0.011 (p<0.05). This study concluded that writing the expressions of gratitude for 60 days in BSB reduced depression severity in type-2 DM patients.