Effect of Group Acceptance and Commitment Therapy on Body Image and Self-compassion of Women Undergoing Dialysis: A Randomized Clinical Trial

Dialysis for the treatment of chronic kidney failure has negative effects on the quality of life, daily activities, lifestyle, and physical, mental, and social health. The present study aims to assess the effect of group acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT) on the body image and self-compassion of women undergoing dialysis.

This is a quasi-experimental study (randomized clinical trial) with a pre-test/post-test/follow-up design. The study population consisted of all women receiving dialysis who were referred to the Dialysis Patients Support Association in Khorasan Razavi, Iran, in 2021-2022. Of these, 30 were selected by a convenience sampling method and were randomly assigned to two groups of intervention and control. The intervention group received group ACT at 10 sessions each for 120 minutes, while the control group received no intervention. Both groups completed the Body Image Concern Inventory and the Self-Compassion Scale in the pre-test, post-test, and two-month follow-up phases. The data were analyzed using the repeated measures analysis of variance in SPSS software, version 25.

The intervention group showed a significant improvement in body image (F=39.271, P=0.001) and self-compassion (F=7.342, P=0.001) in the post-test phase compared to the control group, which remained stable in the two-month follow-up.

The group ACT can be a suitable method to increase body image satisfaction and self-compassion in women undergoing dialysis.