The Effectiveness of Acceptance and Commitment Therapy on Irrational Beliefs and Death Attitude in the Elderly

Aging seems to be a biological process that all living beings, including humans, experience. Hence, it is important to pay careful attention to the elderly and to prevent disorders such as irrational beliefs and negative attitude towarddeath among the elderly. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to consider the effectiveness of acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT) on irrational beliefs and negative attitude towarddeath in the elderly. It was a quasi-experimental study with pretest-posttest and control group design. The statistical population of the study included all the elderly men in Khoram Abad, Iran in 2020. The sample size consisted of 30 elderly people (60 to 70 years old) selected using available sampling method and according to the inclusion and exclusion criteria. The experimental group received eight 90-minute weekly sessions of ACT. The applied questionnaires in the study included Ahvaz irrational beliefs test and Wong et al.’s death attitude profile. Data were analyzed using univariate analysis of covariance (ANCOVA) in SPSS-22 software. The results showed that there was a significant difference between experimental and control groups in terms of irrational beliefs and negative attitude toward deathin posttest (P<0.001). That is, ACT resulted in the decrease of irrational beliefs and negative attitude toward death. According to the findings of the present study, ACT can be suggested as an efficient method in order to reduction of irrational beliefs and negative attitude toward deathin the elderly.