The Effect of Dignity Therapy on the Quality of Life of Patients with Cancer Receiving Palliative Care

BACKGROUND: Patients with cancer deal with physical, psychosocial, spiritual, and existential problems that impact on their quality of life. This study aimed to assess the effect of dignity therapy on the quality of life of mentioned patients. MATERIALS AND METHODS: In this quasi-experimental study, 50 patients with cancer hospitalized in a palliative care center in Tehran, Iran, in 2017-18 who fulfilled inclusion criteria were selected through convenience sampling. The European Organization for Research and Treatment of Cancer Quality of Life-C15-Palliative (EORTC-QLQ-C15-PAl) questionnaire was filled by patients before and 2 weeks after dignity therapy. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics such as frequency, mean, and standard deviation, as well as inferential statistics, including independent t-test and Chi-square test. RESULTS: Results showed that dignity-therapy led to more improvement in the quality of life of the intervention group (t(35,18)= 4.82, p = 0.001). There was also a significant difference between the two groups in terms of the physical functioning scale (t(32,96)= -2.60,p = 0.01) and emotional functioning (t (45,69)= 6.54, p < 0.001). We also found that dignity-therapy led to more improvement in nausea and vomiting (χ(2) = 5.71, p = 0.02), insomnia (χ(2) = 15.78, p < 0.001), appetite (χ(2) = 5.09, p = 0.02), and constipation (χ(2) = 12.50, p < 0.001). CONCLUSIONS: The application of new approaches like-dignity therapy could benefit patients with cancer in terms of reducing their distress, improving symptom severity, physical and emotional functioning, and total quality of life.