The Impact of Raised Level of Awareness on Reduced Stress in Caretakers of the Women with Breast Cancer

Background and Aim:Those taking care of the cancer patients are faced with the problems relating to social activities, communications, compatibility with responsibilities and the care -related issues. The stress originating from such problems endangers the caretakers mental health; therefore, it is essential to take some measures to reduce stress in these people. Raising the level of awareness and insight is a method of stress reduction. This study is aimed at investigating the impact of providing training on raising the level of awareness on reduced stress in caretakers of the women with breast cancer.Materials and Methods:To this end, 24 of these caretakers at Shohada Hospital in Tehran were selected with the instant method and randomly put in two experimental and control groups. The two groups were examined in terms of stress level by means of Kohn s 14 -item Perceived Stress Test before and after they had been provided with training on raising the level of awareness. Then, the experimental group was provided with training on raising the level of awareness in eight 90-minute sessions, while the control group received none.Results &Conclusion:Results of the covariance analysis of the subjects stress scores in pre-test and post-test suggested that providing training on raising the level of awareness has a positive effect on lowered stress scores of the caretakers provided with training, and this method of intervention could be adopted independently or together with other treatment methods such as medication therapy for stress reduction in such patients.

کلیدواژه ها:

Awareness Raising ، Stress ، Caretakers