A psychological approach to religious tendencies in diabetes patients

Chronic diseases are diseases that cause physiological, psychological and social problems in individuals and require long-term treatment and care. Diabetes, one of the chronic diseases, is very common in the world and in our country. Diabetes is a metabolic and endocrine disease diagnosed with hyperglycaemia due to the lack of insulin hormone in the body. Diabetes, which negatively affects human life in many ways, causes psychological problems such as stress, anxiety and depression in individuals. In order to improve the quality of life, the individual seeks solutions by seeking refuge in God and turning to religious tendencies by trying to cope with the stressful situation of diabetes. Because the individual who realises that he/she cannot cope with the negative event he/she is experiencing seeks help. However, most of the studies on diabetes patients are on the course of the disease. As a matter of fact, studies show that although there have been great advances in diagnosis and treatment methods, different treatment methods are used due to the failure to reach the targeted blood glucose values. In this context, in addition to the physical health of diabetic patients who need to believe in a religion by nature, protecting their psychological health and taking preventive measures related to this is as important as controlling the course of the disease. In this context, does religion have a positive effect on the disease process by supporting the individual in the face of physiological or psychological problems caused by diabetes, or does it affect negatively by causing a negative mood and life view? In our study, in order to find an answer to this question, the religious tendencies of the individual in the disease process since the diagnosis of diabetes disease were examined in terms of psychological characteristics. The general aim of our study is to determine the religious tendencies of diabetic patients, to investigate the relationship between diabetes and religious tendencies and to interpret the findings in terms of psychological characteristics. The research consists of two main sections, method, findings and interpretations, conclusion and recommendations. In the first part of our study consisting of two parts, the conceptual framework was completed by reviewing the literature on diabetes and religious tendencies in the second part. The third section consists of the method section, which includes explanations about the population and sample of the study, data collection techniques and data analysis. The population of the research consists of 130 active diabetic patients over the age of 18, who were determined by a random method among diabetic patients organized on social media platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp in 2020-2021. The data was obtained by using the survey method, which is one of the quantitative research techniques. As a data collection tool, questionnaire questions created by scanning various books, journals and articles were used. The questionnaires were collected through the internet (Google Forms). The fourth section presents the findings and interpretations that form the basis of our study. In this section, the statistical interpretation of the data obtained from the sample of 130 people was made and the results were discussed within the framework of the literature. The study is concluded with a general evaluation of the research findings and various recommendations. The data obtained within the scope of the research were analysed with SPSS 24 programme. Within the scope of the research, frequency and percentage analysis were used in the distribution of demographic characteristics. As a result of the data obtained, hypothesis tests were statistically tested at 95% confidence level and chi-square analysis was used to determine the relationships between categorical variables. Statistical analyses for the hypotheses created to solve the problem of "Diabetes disease affects the religious tendencies of individuals" revealed that there is a significant relationship between the level of religious knowledge of the sample and age, socio-economic level, gratitude to God. In addition, it was determined that there was a significant relationship between the way of worshipping and the type of the disease and the type of medication used. It was also determined that there was a significant relationship between the perception of feeling happy before the diagnosis of diabetes and the status of worshipping after the diagnosis of diabetes. In addition, our hypotheses that there is a significant relationship between the level of belief in Allah and the belief that diabetes is given by Allah to test His servants were also confirmed. In summary; 7 of the 14 hypotheses tested were confirmed. Keywords: Diabetes, Religious Tendencies, Illness, Psychology, Psychology of Religion