The Effectiveness of Acceptance and Commitment Therapy on Hemodialysis Patient's Quality of Life: A Randomized Educational Trial Study

Hemodialysis as the most common treatment method for kidney replacement in patients with kidney disease, causes various physical and psychological problems and on the other hand, some studies indicated that Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) has been effective in improving quality of life and adjustment in patients. Therefore, the present study aimed to investigate the effectiveness of ACT on quality of life in patients undergoing hemodialysis.
The current study was a randomized educational trial which conducted on 22 patients undergoing hemodialysis on Kosar Hospital of Semnan in 2016. First, the samples were selected by convenient sampling and randomly divided into two experimental and control groups. Then, the experimental group received ACT for eight weeks continuously. Data was collected by two questionnaires of demographic features and Kidney Disease Quality of Life (KDQOL), and was analyzed by using two-way repeated measures ANOVA statistical method.
The mean and standard deviation of the age of the control group was 52.27 ± 13.22 and the experimental group 47.90 ± 14.57 years (p=0.620). There were significant differences in the subscales of physical and emotional problems, General health, Mental health, Energy, Effects of kidney disease, Burden of kidney disease, Work status, and Quality of social interaction between the two experimental and control groups (p According to the obtained results, it’s recommended to use ACT as an effective and complementary psychological intervention in hemodialysis patients to improve their quality of life .