The effectiveness of mindfulness-based stress reduction on self-efficacy, perceived stress and life orientation of women with breast cancer

Breast cancer is one of the most common cancers and accounts for almost one third of all cancers in women. The aim of this study was to investigate the effectiveness of mindfulness method on self-efficacy, perceived stress and life orientation in women with breast cancer. To this end, 40 patients with breast cancer were selected in the form of a quasi-experimental design of pretest-posttest along with the control group, using convenience sampling and were randomly assigned to both groups of experiment and control. The experimental group underwent two months of treatment. The control group did not undergo any intervention. The groups were tested in terms of self-efficacy, perceived stress and life orientation both before and after the intervention. Covariance analysis results indicated that mindfulness-based stress reduction therapy has made a significant difference in increasing positive life orientation and decreasing perceived stress in the experimental group both in the post-test and follow up stage. But there was no significant difference in the self-efficacy rate in patients. It seems that this therapy can be an appropriate method in speeding up the healing process, compliance and prevention of recurrence of the disease by targeting the mechanisms involved in stress and life orientation in patients with cancer.