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Does kindness matter? Self‐compassion buffers the negative impact of diabetes‐distress on HbA 1c
Author(s) -
Friis A. M.,
Johnson M. H.,
Cutfield R. G.,
Consedine N. S.
Publication year - 2015
Publication title -
diabetic medicine
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.474
H-Index - 145
eISSN - 1464-5491
pISSN - 0742-3071
DOI - 10.1111/dme.12774
Subject(s) - medicine , self compassion , diabetes mellitus , distress , kindness , clinical psychology , endocrinology , mindfulness , theology , philosophy
Background Higher self‐compassion is associated with mental and physical health benefits in both healthy and chronically ill populations. The current study investigated the role of self‐compassion in predicting depression, diabetes‐specific distress and HbA 1c in patients with diabetes. Aims To assess the specific operationalization of negative emotionality that best predicted HbA 1c and to test whether self‐compassion would buffer HbA 1c in patients with diabetes against the negative effects of distress. Methods Patients with diabetes ( n = 110) completed measures assessing trait self‐compassion, depression and diabetes‐distress. HbA 1c results were obtained through medical records. Results As expected, diabetes‐specific distress was a better predictor of HbA 1c than depression; self‐compassion moderated the relationship between distress and HbA 1c such that higher distress predicted higher HbA 1c at lower levels of self‐compassion, but not at higher levels of self‐compassion. Conclusions In addition to further demonstrating the link between distress and metabolic outcomes, these findings suggest that self‐compassion might buffer patients from the negative metabolic consequences of diabetes‐distress.