Effectiveness of Acceptance and Commitment Therapy in Sleep Quality, Resil- ience, and Death Anxiety in the Elderly

Background: Aging currently has a major share of population composition. The aim of this study was to determine the effectiveness of acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT) on sleep quality, resilience, and death anxiety of the elderly. Methods: The research method was pre-test, post-test with two-month follow-up period with control group. The statistical population of this study included all elderly residents in nursing homes in Shiraz in 2019. The sample consisted of 30 people from the mentioned population who were selected by convenience sampling method and assigned to two groups of acceptance and commitment therapy (n=15), and control group (n=15) using simple randomization method. Data were collected using a resilience questionnaire (Conner-Davidson, 2003), Death Anxiety Scale (Collette-Lester, 1969), and Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Questionnaire. Data were analyzed using the repeated measure ANOVA, and the above statistical analysis was performed using SPSS.22 software. Results: The results showed that acceptance and commitment therapy was effective on improving sleep quality (p <0.001) and resilience (p <0.001) and death anxiety (p <0.001) in elderly people. Conclusion: It can be concluded that acceptance and commitment therapy was effective on improving sleep quality and resilience and death anxiety in elderly people.