Abstract
Background & Objectives: Among the most common cancers in women, breast cancer, which includes 23% of cancers in this group, occurs at least a decade earlier and in more advanced stages in Iranian women compared to women in Western countries. In addition to physical problems, patients also face various psychological challenges, such as anxiety. Psychological challenges reduce the ability of a person with cancer to adapt in general by negatively affecting psychological functions and increasing stress. Coping strategies are important issues considered in psychological treatments. The use of coping styles helps patients use better methods in dealing with stress and anxiety. One style is the Islamic coping style. This style includes a spiritual and religious structure and insight to achieve a clear, positive vision of events in the surrounding environment and to create an image of attachment, the most important effect of which is the growth of meaning in people's lives. So, the present study was conducted to investigate the effectiveness of Islamic coping styles training based on the experiences of women with breast cancer on anxiety and life expectancy.
Methods: This quasi–experimental study employed a pretest–posttest design with a control group. The statistical population included all breast cancer patients living in Kerman City, Iran, in 2023. Of these, 40 people were selected for the study. These people were randomly assigned to two groups: an Islamic coping style training group and a control group (20 people in each). The inclusion criteria were as follows: a cancer diagnosis by an endocrinologist, at least 1 year since the diagnosis, and the ability to read and write. The exclusion criteria included suffering from other chronic and psychiatric diseases, having psychological problems, and unwillingness to participate in the research. Informed and ethical consent was obtained from the participants, and they were informed that they would be required to keep the research information confidential. First, both groups completed the Miller Hope Scale (MHS) (Miller & Powers, 1988) and the State–Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI) (Spielberger et al., 1970). The experimental group underwent 10 training sessions twice a week, while the control group received no therapeutic intervention. At the end of the training sessions, the research questionnaires were again presented and completed as a posttest for subjects in both groups. The educational style package of Islamic confrontation. Islamic confrontational style training was carried out according to the protocol of Aghamohammadi et al. (2023). This protocol consists of ten 60–minute sessions, which psychologists have properly evaluated. In Aghamohammadi et al.'s (2023) study, the validity ratio index for this package was over 0.60, and its standard fit index was 0.96. To comply with ethical considerations, he told the witness group that, if the plan is proposed, the intervention for the experimental group will also be presented to them after the research is completed. The research data were analyzed in two sections: descriptive statistics (frequency, percentage, mean, and standard deviation) and inferential statistics (analysis of covariance) in SPSS software version 22 at a significance level of 0.05.
Results: Covariance analysis showed that after controlling for the pretest, the difference in the means of state anxiety (p=0.037), trait anxiety (p=0.032), and life expectancy (p=0.004) between the two groups was significant in the posttest. Additionally, based on the effect sizes, Islamic coping style training explained 11.2% of the variance in state anxiety, 11.9% in trait anxiety, and 20.6% in life expectancy.
Conclusion: According to the results of the present study, Islamic coping style training is useful for reducing anxiety and increasing life expectancy in cancer patients. Therefore, the Islamic coping style can be a very important and effective tool for the mental health of people with anxiety and despair.