Effectiveness of positive thinking training on anxiety, depression and quality of life of mothers of children with leukemia

Context: Leukemia is the most common pediatric cancer. Diagnosis and treatment of childhood cancer may have adverse psychological effects on children and their families. Aim: We examined the effectiveness of positive thinking education on anxiety, depression, and quality of life of mothers of children with leukemia. Settings and Design: This randomized control trial has been conducted during August-September 2017, on 30 mothers of children with leukemia who randomly allocated into two groups using 30 random numbers produced by computer software and assigned to intervention (n = 15) and control (n = 15) groups. Materials and Methods: Data collection tools included depression, anxiety, stress scale-21, and MOS 36- Item Short-Form Health Survey quality of life questionnaire. Statistical Analysis Used: The normality of data distribution examined using the Kolmogorov – Smirnov test. Then, data were analyzed using descriptive methods (mean, frequency, and percentage), Chi-square, and independent t-test. Results: There were no statistically significant differences between the study groups in depression, anxiety, and quality of life variable at baseline (P 0.05). However after the intervention, results showed significant differences between the study groups in all the three variables in posttest compared to the pretest. The mean scores of depression and anxiety respected, in the intervention group were significantly lower than the control group (P 0.001) and (P 0.004). Furthermore, significant differences were found between the study groups in quality of life score (P 0.05). Conclusion: Positive thinking training reduced anxiety and depression and increased the quality of life of mothers of children with leukemia.