Effectiveness of Acceptance and Commitment Therapy in Sleep Quality, Resilience, and Death Anxiety in the Elderly

Background: Aging currently has a major share of population composition. The current study aimed to determine the effectiveness of acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT) in sleep quality, resilience, and death anxiety of the elderly. Materials and Methods: The research method was pretest-posttest with a two-month follow-up period and control group. The statistical population of this study included all the elderly residents in nursing homes in Shiraz, Iran, in 2019. The sample consisted of 30 individuals from the aforementioned population selected by convenience sampling and assigned to two groups of ACT (n=15) and control (n=15) using simple randomization. The data were collected using Connor-Davidson Resilience Scale (Connor-Davidson, 2003), Collett-Lester Death Anxiety Scale (Collett-Lester, 1969), and Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index. The data were analyzed using the repeated measures analysis of variance, and statistical analysis was performed using SPSS software (version 22). Results: The results showed that ACT was effective in the improvement of sleep quality (P 0.001), resilience (P 0.001), and death anxiety (P 0.001) in elderly individuals. Conclusion: It can be concluded that ACT is effective in the improvement of sleep quality, resilience, and death anxiety in elderly individuals.