The Effects of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy on Quality of Life Among Patients with Hepatitis B

Abstract

Background and Objectives: Hepatitis B is associated with different physical and psychological complications. This study sought to evaluate the effects of cognitive behavioral therapy on the quality of life among patients with hepatitis B. Methods: In this quasi-experimental study, 60 patients with hepatitis B were conveniently recruited from a private infectious disease clinic in Birjand, Iran. The patients were randomly allocated to either a control (n = 30) or an intervention (n = 30) group. Patients in the intervention group received cognitive behavioral therapy in eight 45-minute sessions while their counterparts received no cognitive behavioral therapy. All patients completed the 36-item Short Form Survey both before and after the intervention. The SPSS software (v. 15.0) was used to analyze the data by running the paired-sample t, independent-sample t, Wilcoxon signed-rank, and Mann-Whitney U test at a significance level of less than 0.05. Results: In the intervention group, the scores of the social functioning and general health domains of quality of life significantly decreased while the score of the emotional well-being domain significantly increased after the intervention (P < 0.05). However, the mean scores of the other domains did not change significantly (P > 0.05). Moreover, in the control group, the scores of quality of life and its social functioning and general health domains significantly decreased (P < 0.05), while the scores of the other dimensions did not change significantly (P > 0.05). The groups did not significantly differ from each other respecting the pretest-posttest mean scores of the quality of life and its domains (P > 0.05). Conclusions: This study suggests that cognitive behavioral therapy has no significant effect on the quality of life but significantly improves emotional well-being among patients with hepatitis B.