Holistic health management: an approach in alleviating the level of stress of cancer patients

The study was undertaken to determine the effectiveness of Holistic Health Management as an approach to alleviate the stress level of cancer patients.The experimental method of research used in this study was the pretest-posttest control group design. The study utilized 13 cancer patients who responded to the advertisement placed at the Jose Reyes Memorial Center. These subjects were randomly assigned to control and experimental groups (seven patients) and experimental group (six patients). The subjects were ambulatory cancer patients who received diagnosis of cancer/malignancy in any site or location of the body within two years prior to participation. They were also all literate in the English language. The instruments used in this study were the State-Trait Anxiety Test and letters written by patients to themselves. The data were subjected to t-tests for correlated and uncorrelated samples. Content Analysis was, likewise, used in the patients\u27 letters to themselves before and after treatment.The effect of the HHM was based on the difference in the level of the patients\u27 stress before and after exposure to HHM.Results showed that there was a slight positive change in the experimental group\u27s level of stress from high average to low average after exposure to HHM program. However, the change did not reach the level of significance. This could be attributed to the patients\u27 tendency to be defensive. On the other hand, there was a slight but insignificant change in the level of stress of cancer patients in the control group in the pretest and posttest. There were also more favorable thoughts and feelings indicating increased harmony with God and positive internal thoughts and feelings expressed by patients after treatment than before treatment. There was also no significant difference in the level of stress of cancer patients in the experimental and control groups in the pre-test and posttest.The affective activities/component of the HHM (Identification and Recognition of Negative Feelings thru the use of Symbols), which provided the highest overall impact, helped most of the patients to get in touch with their negative feelings and to correct cognitive distortions. The spiritual activities/component (listening to Arteburn Serenity Tapes) helped all of the patients to increase harmony and faith in God. Likewise, it also helped the patients to correct their cognitive distortions.The cognitive component/activities of the HHM (Classification of Stressors into Controllable and Uncontrollable), which provided the least overall impact, was able to correct cognitive distortions in the majority of the patients after treatment