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Effects of counselling and spiritual care program on anxiety in patients with chronic diseases: A systematic review and meta-analysis

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Abstract

One of the essential non-pharmacological treatments for patients with chronic diseases are psychosocial supports and counselling services such as spiritual psychotherapy. Although several preliminary studies represent the effects of counselling and spiritual psychotherapy on anxiety in patients with chronic diseases, there are various contradictions among the findings. The present meta-analysis aimed to determine the effects of counselling and spiritual care programs on anxiety in patients with chronic diseases. For data collection, various databases were searched regarding no time limitation until May 2021, including SID, MagIran, Embase, ProQuest, Scopus, PubMed, and Web of Science (WoS) using Google Scholar search engine. Inclusion criteria were original research articles, interventional studies, and exclusion criteria were irrelevant assessments, systematic review and meta-analysis studies, case reports, letters to the editor, and duplicate papers. I2 test was used to calculate heterogeneity of studies, and the Egger’s test was applied to examine the publication bias. According to the inclusion criteria, 26 articles were selected among 612 initial papers with a sample size of 1040 individuals. The mean anxiety scores before and after the interventions were 33.02 ± 3.77 and 25.27 ± 3.66, respectively. The significant (P < 0.05) mean difference before and after the interventions was 1.74 ± 0.23. Counselling and psychotherapy can reduce anxiety in patients with chronic diseases.

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Abbreviations

DSM-5:

Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fifth Edition

WoS:

Web of Science

STROBE:

Strengthening the reporting of observational studies in epidemiology for cross-sectional study

PRISMA:

Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analysis

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Acknowledgements

This study is the result of research project No. 990373 approved by the Student Research Committee of Kermanshah University of Medical Sciences. We would like to thank the esteemed officials of the center for the financial affords of this study.

Authors’contributions

NA and MK and MM and AA1 contributed to the design, MM statistical analysis, participated in most of the study steps. MM and MK and NA prepared the manuscript. MK and NA and AA2 and SHSH and MM assisted in designing the study, and helped in the, interpretation of the study. All authors have read and approved the content of the manuscript.

Funding

By Deputy for Research and Technology, Kermanshah University of Medical Sciences (IR) (990373). This deputy has no role in the study process.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Biostatistics, School of Health, Kermanshah University of Medical Sciences, Kermanshah, Iran

    Nader Salari

  2. Sleep Disorders Research Center, Kermanshah University of Medical Sciences, Kermanshah, Iran

    Nader Salari

  3. Student Research Committee, Kermanshah University of Medical Sciences, Kermanshah, Iran

    Mohsen Kazeminia

  4. Department of Nursing, School of Nursing and Midwifery, Kermanshah University of Medical Sciences, Kermanshah, Iran

    Alireza Abdi & Masoud Mohammadi

  5. Department of Anatomical Sciences, School of Medicine, Kermanshah University of Medical Sciences, Kermanshah, Iran

    Amir Abdolmaleki

  6. Department of Psychiatry, Substance Abuse Prevention Research Center, Kermanshah University of Medical Sciences, Kermanshah, Iran

    Nasrin Abdoli

  7. Department of Biology, Faculty of Science, University Putra Malaysia, Serdang, Selangor, Malaysia

    Shamarina Shohaimi

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  1. Nader Salari
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  3. Alireza Abdi
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Correspondence to Masoud Mohammadi.

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Ethics approval was received from the ethics committee of deputy of research and technology, Kermanshah University of Medical Sciences (IR.KUMS.REC.1399.140).

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Salari, N., Kazeminia, M., Abdi, A. et al. Effects of counselling and spiritual care program on anxiety in patients with chronic diseases: A systematic review and meta-analysis. Curr Psychol 42, 9943–9952 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12144-021-02263-9

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