The Effect of dignity therapy on quality of life in patients with cancer: A Randomized Controlled Clinical Trial

Patients with cancer experience a range of symptoms, including pain and a variety of physical and psychological distress, which negatively affects the quality of life of these patients. The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of Dignity therapy on quality of life in patients with cancer.

In this clinical trial, 76 cancer patients were studied by available methods among patients referred to Iran Mehr Hospital in Birjand in 1397-1398 and were randomly assigned to two groups of dignity therapy and control. Quality of life was assessed by Quality of Life Questionnaire-Core 30(QLQ-C30) at baseline and 4 weeks after the intervention. The data were analyzed in SPSS (version 16) using the paired t-test, Wilcoxon, Mann-Whitney U, and t-dependent tests.

Mean scores of quality of life in functional dimension, symptom dimension and general quality of life dimension before intervention were not significantly different between groups (p = 0.72), (p = 0.78) and (p = 0.70), while after the intervention in the functional dimension and the general quality of life dimension was significantly different between the two groups (p = 0.04). Before and after dignity therapy, the mean score of functional of quality of life dimension (p <0.001) and the mean score of the general quality of life dimension in the experimental group showed a statistically significant difference (p = 0.003). But no significant difference was observed in the symptoms (p = 0.48). The mean scores of quality of life in functional dimension, symptom dimension, and general quality of life dimension before and after the intervention in the control group were not significantly different (p >0.05).

The results of this study showed that new approaches such as dignity therapy can improve the quality of life of cancer patients. It is recommended that this study be conducted on a larger scale in other hospitals and cultures. It is recommended comparing the effect of this intervention with other psychotherapeutic methods in increasing the quality of life of cancer patients.