The Effectiveness of Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy on Psychological Well-Being and Quality of Life in Caregivers of the Elderly with Alzheimer's disease in Isfahan City: A Quasi-Experimental Study

Caring of elderly with Alzheimer's disease and communicating with them is a chronic stressful process that has a negative effect on caregivers’ psychological well-being and quality of life. Therefore, considering the importance of this issue, the aim of this study was to investigate the effectiveness of mindfulness-based cognitive therapy on psychological well-being and quality of life in caregivers of the elderly with Alzheimer’s disease in Isfahan city.

This quasi-experimental study was conducted with a pretest-posttest design with control group. The statistical population was caregivers of the elderly with Alzheimer's disease in Isfahan in year 2021. At first, 30 people were selected by available sampling method and then randomly divided into two groups of 15 people. For the people in the experimental group, the mindfulness-based cognitive therapy was implemented in 8 sessions, each session lasting 90 minutes, but the control group received no training and remained in the waiting list. Data was collected using Ryff’s Psychological Well-Being Scale and World Health Organization Quality of Life in two stages, pre-test and post-test. Data was analyzed using multivariate analysis of covariance (MANCOVA).

The results indicated that mindfulness-based cognitive therapy significantly improved psychological well-being and quality of life in caregivers of the elderly (p<0.05).

Since mindfulness-based cognitive therapy was effective on psychological well-being and quality of life, it can be concluded that this intervention can be used by counseling centers and psychological services to improve the psychological well-being and quality of life of caregivers of the elderly with Alzheimer's.