The Effectiveness of Acceptance and Commitment Therapy Training on Health Promoting Lifestyle Profile among Soldiers

Abstract

Background and Objectives: The Acceptance and Commitment Therapy training is one of the new types of trainings in psychology that can affect the lifestyles of soldiers. The aim of this study was to determine the effectiveness of the ACT training on health promoting lifestyle profile in soldiers. Materials and Methods: The present study was a quasi-experimental study which was performed in 2018 with a control group, pre-test, post-test and follow-up (1 month) stages. The study population consisted of 60 soldiers that were part of the revolutionary guards in Tabriz (30 for the experimental group and 30 for the control group) and they were selected by using the convenience sampling method. In the end, 30 people were considered for each group. A Health-Promoting Lifestyle Profile (HPLP-II) was used to collect data. The ACT intervention was performed in eight 45-minute sessions by a clinical psychologist. Results: The total scores of the health-promoting lifestyle and its six dimensions showed that there was no statistically significant difference between the two groups before the intervention (P = 0.43), but after the intervention, the total lifestyle scores were significantly different between the two groups in the post-test and follow-up stages except for the exercise variable (P < 0.05). Also, the study showed that the acceptance and commitment therapy training had a positive and significant effect on lifestyle with an effect score of 0.7 (P < 0.05). Conclusion: Applying the ACT training due to its underlying mechanism such as acceptance, raising awareness, desensitization, living in the moment, observation without judgment, confrontation and abandonment, can increase compatibility while also improving lifestyle. The ACT training is one of the new types of training in psychology that can affect the lifestyles of soldiers.