The Effectiveness of Internet-Based Hope Therapy on Coping Strategies in Patients with Prostate Cancer

Abstract

Background: Most men have prostate cancer (PC), the second leading cause of death. The current study aimed to investigate the effectiveness of Internet-based hope therapy on coping strategies in men with PC. Methods: A quasi-experimental research with a pretest-posttest design and a control group was used in this study. 317 men with PC were referred to the King Fahd Medical City in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, in 2020. Following the participants' voluntary selection, the pre-test stage was performed, and they were given the Coping Inventory for Stressful Situations (CISS). Subjects were chosen by simple random sampling and divided into two groups of 25 experimental and control subjects. Before taking the post-test, the experimental group received hope therapy training. The data were analyzed using multivariate analysis of covariance (MANCOVA) and SPSS software. Results: There was a significant difference between the experimental and control groups regarding stress (F = 57.495, P < 0.001), problem-oriented strategy (F = 33.041, P < 0.001), excitement strategy (F = 28.491, P < 0.001), and circuit avoidance strategy (F = 87.138, P < 0.001) variables. As a result, it can be concluded that the intervention was effective, and the experimental group outperformed the control group in the post-test stage. Conclusion: Hope therapy has a good effect on reducing stress in patients with PC and can be used to reduce the negative psychological consequences and increase effective coping strategies with stress.

Keywords

• prostate cancer
• internet-based intervention
• hope
• stress