Effect of music therapy on diabetes distress among patients with diabetic foot ulcer in a selected tertiary care hospital, Mangalore, India - A pilot study

Diabetic distress (DD), which is unnoticed in diabetes, may lead to depression. The study's objectives are to identify DD in patients with diabetic foot ulcer (DFU) and to use music therapy to help them cope with their stressful circumstances and improve their overall wellness’ non-probability purposive sampling technique was used to assign 30 DFU patients, 15 each to the intervention group and the control group respectively. With the 17 items Diabetic Distress Scale (DDS), diabetes distress is assessed. Pretest is done on day one and post-test on day 21 for both the groups. During a period of 21 days, the intervention group received both routine treatment and music therapy for 20 minutes in the morning and the evening, while the control group received only routine treatment. The majority (53.3%) of the participants in control and intervention group was over 60 years old and was men. 93.3% participants of intervention and control group had moderate DD during pretest. Post test shows that the only 6.7% participants had moderate DD and 93.3% had no DD in the intervention group whereas the control group had no changes in distress level. The mean ± SD of overall DD scores was reduced in the intervention group from pretest to post-test (3.7 ± 0.6 to 2.4 ± 0.2) and increased in the control group from 3.4 ±0.5 to 3.8 ± 0.5. The distress associated with diabetes appears to be significantly reduced by music therapy. As a result, music therapy might be recommended as a complementary therapy for people with diabetes foot ulcers in order to preserve good physical and mental health and to improve quality of life.