Effects of Mindfulness Meditation Program on Perceived Stress, Ways of Coping, and Stress Response in Breast Cancer Patients

Kang, Gwangsoon; Oh, Sangeun

doi:10.4040/jkan.2012.42.2.161

J Korean Acad Nurs. 2012 Apr;42(2):161-170. Korean.
Published online Apr 30, 2012.
https://doi.org/10.4040/jkan.2012.42.2.161

Original Article

Effects of Mindfulness Meditation Program on Perceived Stress, Ways of Coping, and Stress Response in Breast Cancer Patients

Gwangsoon Kang,¹ and Sangeun Oh²

Author information

Author notes

Copyright and License

- ¹Full-time Instructor, Department of Nursing, Gwangju University, Gwangju, Korea.
- ²Professor, College of Nursing, CRINS, Chonnam National University, Gwangju, Korea.
Address reprint requests to: Oh, Sangeun. College of Nursing, Chonnam National University, 5 Hak 1-dong, Dong-gu, Gwangju 501-746, Korea. Tel: +82-62-220-4354, FAX: +82-62-227-4009, Email: seoh@jnu.ac.kr

Received November 08, 2010; Accepted April 26, 2012.

Abstract

Purpose

Purpose of this study was to examine the effects of the Mindfulness Meditation program on perceived stress, ways of coping, salivary cortisol level, and psychological stress response in patients with breast cancer.

Methods

This was a quasi-experimental study with a non-equivalent control group pre-post test design. Participants in this study were 50 patients who had completed breast cancer treatment (experimental group, 25, control group, 25). The experimental group received the Mindfulness Meditation program for 3 hours/session/ week for 8 weeks. Data were analyzed using χ²-test and t-test for subject homogeneity verification, and ANCOVA to examine the hypotheses.

Results

The experimental group had significantly lower scores for perceived stress, emotional focused coping, salivary cortisol level, and psychological stress response compared to the control group. However, no significant differences were found between two groups for the scores on problem focused stress coping.

Conclusion

According to the results, the Mindfulness Meditation program was useful for decreasing perceived stress, emotional focused coping, salivary cortisol level, and psychological stress response. Therefore, this program is an effective nursing intervention to decrease stress in patients with breast cancer.

Keywords

Meditation; Breast Cancer; Stress

Figures

Figure 1
Conceptual framework of this study.

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Tables

Table 1
Mindfulness Meditation Program

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Table 2
Homogeneity for Characteristics between Experimental and Control Groups

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Table 3
Homogeneity Test of Dependent Variables between Experimental and Control Groups

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Table 4
Comparison of Subcategories in Perceived stress, Ways of Coping, and Stress Response between Experimental and Control Groups

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Notes

This study was conducted by research funds from Gwangju University.

This article is based on a part of the first author's doctoral dissertation from Chonnam National University.

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