Comparison of the Effectiveness of Educational Intervention based on Hope Therapy Approach and Mindfulness-based Cognitive Therapy Approach on Perceived Social Support of Women with Multiple Sclerosis

Multiple sclerosis is a chronic neurological disease whose treatment methods have been considered by researchers in various fields. Therefore, the aim of this study was to compare the effectiveness of educational intervention based on hope therapy approach and mindfulness-based cognitive therapy approach on perceived social support of women with MS.

The present study was a quasi-experimental with pre-test-post-test design and quarterly follow-up with a control group. The statistical population of the present study consisted of all women with inflammatory bowel disease and a member of the Iranian inflammatory disease association. From this population, 36 people were selected by available non-random sampling method. The research instrument was the Perceived Social Support Questionnaire of Zimet et al. (1988). The experimental groups then received cognitive-therapeutic interventions based on mindfulness and hope therapy, and the control group did not receive any intervention. Data were analyzed using mixed analysis of variance using SPSSV19 software.

The results showed that there was a significant difference in the perceived social support variable between the three groups (P <0.05). Intervention groups in the social support variable were significantly different from the control group. Also, there was a significant difference between the two groups of hope therapy and mindfulness-based cognitive therapy in the social support variable (P <0.05)

Therefore, it can be said that mindfulness and cognitive therapy methods based on mindfulness are effective on perceived social support of women with multiple sclerosis.