Objective: Anxiety in cancer patients can affect recovery time, medication adherence, and patient quality of life. Some studies show that dhikr therapy can improve relaxation and can reduce anxiety, but research on dhikr therapy in cancer patients is still not widely done. This study aims to determine the effect of dhikr therapy on reducing anxiety in cancer patients.
Methods: This study used a quantitative method with a quasi-experimental-nonequivalent control group design. The study was conducted in April-May 2018, with respondents 20 people in the intervention group and 20 people in the control group. Dhikr therapy is given once a day in the intervention group with a minimum time of 10 min. Anxiety was measured using the Visual Analog Scale for Anxiety. The effect of dhikr therapy was measured using the Mann-Whitney and effect size (ES).
Results: There were a statistically significant differences in the anxiety level of patients in the intervention group and the control group, with a value of P = 0.001 (P < 0.05) and ES = 0.87 (ES > 0.5) indicating the influence of dhikr therapy in reducing patient anxiety.
Conclusions: Dhikr therapy has a great effect on reducing anxiety in cancer patients.
Keywords: Anxiety; cancer patient; dhikr therapy; visual analog scale for anxiety.
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