Effects of Compassion Meditation on Psychological Status in Patients With Diabetes: A Pilot Randomized Controlled Trial
Seongkum Heo, Tammy Barbé, Justus Randolph, JinShil KimBackground:
Patients with diabetes often experience significant psychological distress, contributing to poor diabetes self-management and complications. Meditation may reduce psychological distress, but most meditation interventions have been lengthy and burdensome to both participants and interventionists.
Purpose:
The purpose of this study was to evaluate the preliminary effects of a 4-week compassion meditation intervention with recorded Zoom sessions (30-40 minutes/session) on psychological factors (depressive symptoms, diabetes distress, self-compassion, resilience, self-esteem, and self-efficacy) in patients with type 1 or type 2 diabetes.
Methods:
In this pilot randomized controlled trial, participants were recruited via ResearchMatch. Baseline and 4-week follow-up data on all the study variables and demographic characteristics were collected via Research Electronic Data Capture from April to July 2025. After baseline, each participant was randomly assigned to the intervention or control group based on a computer-generated list of random numbers. Independent samples
Results:
Between-group analyses showed higher levels of diabetes self-efficacy and lower diabetes distress in the intervention group (
Conclusions:
This brief, virtual compassionate meditation intervention showed favorable effects on several psychological factors. It may be implemented to enhance psychological statuses in patients with diabetes.