The Efficacy of Mindfulness-based Stress Reduction on Health Control and Self-care in Women With Hypertension: A Randomized-controlled Trial

Abstract

Background: It is necessary to help people with hypertension solve the related problems by identifying factors affecting their health control and self-care, which can be improved using different approaches. This study aimed to determine the effectiveness of mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR) therapy in improving health control and self-care in women with hypertension. Methods: The statistical population of this randomized controlled trial study included all women with hypertension referred to the Farshchian Specialized Cardiovascular Clinic (Hamadan, Iran) in 2019. The sample size consisted of 30 subjects who were selected by the convenience sampling method and randomly assigned to two experimental and control groups each containing 15 subjects. The MBSR group was trained in eight 90-minute sessions, while the control group received no intervention. Data were analyzed using repeated-measure analysis of variance by SPSS 22. Results: The results revealed that MBSR significantly affected health control (P<0.001) and self-care (P<0.001) in women with hypertension. Conclusion: Overall, MBSR could effectively improve health control and self-care in women with hypertension, thus it may be used for decreasing psychological problems in this group of women.