The Effect of Positive Thinking on Quality of Life and Resiliency of Cancer Patients

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

1 Shahrood Science and Research Branch, Islamic Azad University, Shahrood, Iran

2 Faculty of Psychology, Allameh Tabatabai University, Tehran, Iran

3 Mashhad University of Medical Sciences, Mashhad, Iran

Abstract

Background: Every individual’s quality of life, well-being and mental health are certainly influenced by physical and psychological aspects.
 
Objectives: The purpose of this study was to determine the effect of training positive thinking on quality of life and resiliency in female cancer patients hospitalized in Mashhad Omid hospital.
 
Patients and Methods: This study was an interventional and experimental trial, including pre-and post-test. The target population in this study includes all female cancer patients, monthly 500 patients, hospitalized as outpatient (for a day) or inpatient (more than a week) in Omid hospital, Mashhad. Simple random sampling was used in this study. From the invited subjects, 55 patients accepted to participate in the classes. Using random number table, 30 subjects (15 patients as experimental group, and 15 as control group) were selected. The intervention was performed through eight sessions of one and a half to two hours, and continued for three weeks. After finishing positive thinking sessions, the post-test was conducted for both the experimental group who received intervention and control group who did not receive intervention. Two questionnaires including Conner-Davison resilience scale, 2003, and quality of life (SF-36) along with the primary questions about the individual characteristics were used to collect the required data.
 
Results: To analyze the data, t-test and analysis of covariance (ANCOVA) was used. The result of this study showed that the positive thinking training course has a significant effect on resiliency (P = 0.00) and quality of life in cancer patients and changes are statistically significant (P = 0.00). These changes are the result of the effect of the independent variable.
 
Conclusions: The overall results of this study reveal that positive thinking training courses can be used to increase the quality of life and resiliency of cancer patients.

Keywords


Open Access Policy: This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. To view a copy of this licence, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

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