Comparison of the effect of Hope Therapy Based on Cognitive-Spiritual Approach and Tai chi Exercises on Anxiety due to Corona Disease in students

Abstract   Introduction: According to experts, Stress and anxiety can weaken the immune system and make people vulnerable to diseases such as corona virus. Accordingly, the aim of this study was to compare the effect of Hope Therapy Based on Cognitive-Spiritual Approach and Tai chi Exercises on Anxiety due to Corona Disease in students. Materials and Methods: A Semi-experimental design was conducted (pre-test and post-test) with two experimental and one control groups. 45 female students of the Islamic Azad University of Tabriz who had higher scores on the Corona virus Anxiety Scale were selected by convenience sampling and randomly divided into two experimental groups and one control group. For the first group, Hope Therapy Based on Cognitive-Spiritual Approach training (10 sessions) and for the second group, Tai chi Exercises (10 sessions) was applied and the control group did not receive any training. Prior and after the training, the subjects completed Corona virus Anxiety Scale Alipour et al. (2020). Results: The results showed that the mean scores of Corona Disease Anxiety and its components (psychological and physical symptoms) reduced significantly in the Hope Therapy Based on Cognitive-Spiritual Approach training group comparison to Tai chi exercises group and in the Tai chi Exercises group comparison to the control group in the post-test (P<0.05). Conclusion: The results showed that Hope Therapy Based on Cognitive-Spiritual Approach is more effective in reducing corona disease anxiety in female students than Tai chi exercises.