Comparing the effectiveness of cognitive-behavioral art-play and cognitive-behavioral story therapy on health related quality of life among children with cancer

Children with cancer need psychological treatment to increase their quality of life along with medical treatments. Accordingly, the aim of this study was to determine the comparing the effectiveness of cognitive-behavioral art-play therapy group and the cognitive-behavioral story therapy on health related quality of life among children with cancer.

The research method was semi-experimental, and research design was three groups with two stages (pre-test and post-test design). From statistical population of 8-12 years old children with cancer in Amir Hospital (Shiraz city, Iran) in the Summer of 2018, 36 children were selected and then randomly assigned in two therapeutic groups (each group with 12 cases) and a control group (with 12 cases). Children Health related Quality of Life Scale (KiD-KINDL-Bullinger & Ravens-Sieberer, 1998) was used to measure the dependent variable in the pretest and post-test. The group of cognitive-behavioral art-play therapy and cognitive-behavioral story therapy received 12 sessions of treatment. The data were analyzed using multivariate analysis of covariance.

The results showed that there was a significant difference between cognitive-behavioral art-play therapy and cognitive-behavioral story therapy with the control group in health related quality of life (P<0.001) and their components. However, there was no significant difference between cognitive-behavioral art-play therapy and cognitive-behavioral story therapy in increasing the health related quality of life in children with cancer (P>0.05).

It is suggested that cognitive-behavioral story therapy and cognitive-behavioral art-play therapy should be used in educational and therapeutic environments to promote the level of health related quality of life for children with cancer.