Is ‘Hold Me Tight’ Relationship Enhancement Program Effective in Reducing Fear of Progression in Iranian Married Women with Breast Cancer?

Patients with chronic diseases such as cancer are permanently worried about the progression or recurrence of their diseases. This fear of cancer spreading severely affects a patient’s quality of emotional and marital life. Therefore, this study investigates the effectiveness of the Hold Me Tight (HM...

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Main Authors: Ali Zargaran, Masoumeh Hedayati
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Michigan Publishing 2023-02-01
Series:Journal of Muslim Mental Health
Subjects:
Online Access:https://journals.publishing.umich.edu/jmmh/article/id/976/
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author Ali Zargaran
Masoumeh Hedayati
author_facet Ali Zargaran
Masoumeh Hedayati
author_sort Ali Zargaran
collection DOAJ
description Patients with chronic diseases such as cancer are permanently worried about the progression or recurrence of their diseases. This fear of cancer spreading severely affects a patient’s quality of emotional and marital life. Therefore, this study investigates the effectiveness of the Hold Me Tight (HMT) Relationship Enhancement Program – an EFT-based intervention – on Fear of Progression (FoP) in married women coping with breast cancer. This was a quasi-experimental pre-test–post-test design study with experimental and control groups. Twenty-two couples were recruited and selected purposively among a population of married female patients diagnosed with stage II breast cancer. The couples were assigned into experimental and control groups, each containing 11 couples. The intervention group couples received a 6-session HMT training, and the women in both groups completed the Fear of Progression Questionnaire (FoP-Q ) as pre-test and post-test. We used analysis of covariance to evaluate the effectiveness of the intervention. The statistical analysis results indicated that the mean score of FoP decreased in the experimental group compared to the control group. However, the ANCOVA results revealed no significant difference between the means, showing that the implementation of the HMT intervention program had no significant decreasing effect on FoP dimensions in the intervention group women as compared to the control group (p<0.05). We suggested the consideration of age, relationship satisfaction, the level of FoP before the intervention, cancer stage, and the level of improvement in deciding to use EFT in reducing FoP.
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spelling doaj-art-2539efcdc98f4c01a0fb5f21c9b46fc12025-08-20T02:48:41ZengMichigan PublishingJournal of Muslim Mental Health1556-50092023-02-0117110.3998/jmmh.976Is ‘Hold Me Tight’ Relationship Enhancement Program Effective in Reducing Fear of Progression in Iranian Married Women with Breast Cancer?Ali Zargaran0Masoumeh Hedayati1Department of palliative care of Negin Azadi Comprehensive Health Center, Tehran, IranKish International Branch of Islamic Azad UniversityPatients with chronic diseases such as cancer are permanently worried about the progression or recurrence of their diseases. This fear of cancer spreading severely affects a patient’s quality of emotional and marital life. Therefore, this study investigates the effectiveness of the Hold Me Tight (HMT) Relationship Enhancement Program – an EFT-based intervention – on Fear of Progression (FoP) in married women coping with breast cancer. This was a quasi-experimental pre-test–post-test design study with experimental and control groups. Twenty-two couples were recruited and selected purposively among a population of married female patients diagnosed with stage II breast cancer. The couples were assigned into experimental and control groups, each containing 11 couples. The intervention group couples received a 6-session HMT training, and the women in both groups completed the Fear of Progression Questionnaire (FoP-Q ) as pre-test and post-test. We used analysis of covariance to evaluate the effectiveness of the intervention. The statistical analysis results indicated that the mean score of FoP decreased in the experimental group compared to the control group. However, the ANCOVA results revealed no significant difference between the means, showing that the implementation of the HMT intervention program had no significant decreasing effect on FoP dimensions in the intervention group women as compared to the control group (p<0.05). We suggested the consideration of age, relationship satisfaction, the level of FoP before the intervention, cancer stage, and the level of improvement in deciding to use EFT in reducing FoP.https://journals.publishing.umich.edu/jmmh/article/id/976/breast cancercouples therapyEFTfear of progressionHold Me TightMuslim women
spellingShingle Ali Zargaran
Masoumeh Hedayati
Is ‘Hold Me Tight’ Relationship Enhancement Program Effective in Reducing Fear of Progression in Iranian Married Women with Breast Cancer?
Journal of Muslim Mental Health
breast cancer
couples therapy
EFT
fear of progression
Hold Me Tight
Muslim women
title Is ‘Hold Me Tight’ Relationship Enhancement Program Effective in Reducing Fear of Progression in Iranian Married Women with Breast Cancer?
title_full Is ‘Hold Me Tight’ Relationship Enhancement Program Effective in Reducing Fear of Progression in Iranian Married Women with Breast Cancer?
title_fullStr Is ‘Hold Me Tight’ Relationship Enhancement Program Effective in Reducing Fear of Progression in Iranian Married Women with Breast Cancer?
title_full_unstemmed Is ‘Hold Me Tight’ Relationship Enhancement Program Effective in Reducing Fear of Progression in Iranian Married Women with Breast Cancer?
title_short Is ‘Hold Me Tight’ Relationship Enhancement Program Effective in Reducing Fear of Progression in Iranian Married Women with Breast Cancer?
title_sort is hold me tight relationship enhancement program effective in reducing fear of progression in iranian married women with breast cancer
topic breast cancer
couples therapy
EFT
fear of progression
Hold Me Tight
Muslim women
url https://journals.publishing.umich.edu/jmmh/article/id/976/
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