The Effects of Sandplay Therapy on Anxiety and Sleep Habits of Children with Cancer Undergoing Chemotherapy: A Quasi-Experimental Study

Chemotherapy, as one of the most important treatments for cancer, may lead to complications such as anxiety and changes in children's sleeping habits. The present study aimed to evaluate the effectiveness of sand play therapy in improving anxiety and sleep habits of children with leukemia undergoing chemotherapy.

This quasi-experimental study was conducted on 80 children with leukemia undergoing chemotherapy. The participants were randomly assigned into a control group and an intervention group admitted to Abi Talib (AS) Hospital in Zahedan, southeast Iran, in 2020. Data collection tools included a demographic information questionnaire and the Revised Children's Manifest Anxiety Scale (RCMAS), and Children's Sleep Habits Questionnaire (CSHQ). The questionnaires were completed by the primary caregivers of the children, before and one week after the end of the intervention. Data analyses were performed through SPSS26 software, using independent-t, paired-t, and chi-square tests. The significance level in this study was set at (0.05).

Mean age of the children was 9.35±1.44 years in the intervention group and 9.48±1.57 years in the control group. Based on the results, sandplay therapy significantly reduced anxiety and poor sleep habits in the intervention group (P<0.001).

The findings showed that sandplay therapy can be used as a non-pharmacological and effective treatment method to reduce the complications caused by chemotherapy in children with cancer.