The Effectiveness of Acceptance and Commitment Group Therapy in Body Image and Self-Compassion in Women Undergoing Dialysis: A Randomized Clinical Trial

Objectives: Dialysis for the treatment of chronic kidney failure has significant effects on the quality of life, disrupts daily activities, leads to lifestyle changes, and has a detrimental effect on physical, mental, and social health. The aim of the present study was to investigate the effectiveness of acceptance and commitment therapy on body image and self-compassion in dialysis women. Methods: The current research was a semi-experimental type of pre-test-post-test design with a control and follow-up group. The statistical population consisted of all dialysis women who referred to Khorasan Razavi Dialysis Patients Support Association in 2021-2022. The statistical sample consisted of 30 women undergoing dialysis in Mashhad, who were selected by convenience sampling and were randomly assighned to experimental and control groups. Both groups were undergoing dialysis treatment, the experimental group received therapeutic intervention based on acceptance and commitment during 10 sessions for 120 minutes, the control group did not receive any intervention. Both groups completed Body Image Concern Inventory and Self-Compassion Scale in the pretest, posttest and two-month follow-up. The data were analyzed using the factorial repeated measures analysis of variance in SPSS-25. Findings: The results of this study demonstrated that acceptance and commitment group therapy compared to the control group led to a significant improvement in body image (p=0.001; F=39.271) and self-compassion (p=0.001; F=7.342) of women undergoing dialysis in the posttest and the results remained stable in the two-month follow-up. Conclusion: According to the research results, the use of acceptance and commitment group therapy can be a suitable method to enhance body image satisfaction and self-compassion in women undergoing dialysis.