The effects of mandala colouring on perceived stress, anxiety level and quality of life in caregivers providing care to palliative care patients: A randomized controlled study

This study was conducted to investigate the effects of mandala colouring applied to caregivers of palliative care patients on perceived stress, level of anxiety and quality of life. The research was conducted as a randomised experimental study with a pre-test post-test control group. It was carried out with 80 caregivers who provided care to their patients in the palliative care wards (palliative care ward 1, palliative care ward 2, palliative care ward 3, palliative care ward 4) of Fethi Sekin City Hospital between May 2023 and November 2023, who met the research criteria and whose consent was obtained. Caregivers in the intervention group received mandala colouring 4 days a week (Monday, Wednesday, Friday, Sunday) for 4 weeks, 16 sessions in total. Caregivers in the control group did not receive any intervention. "Descriptive Information Form", "Perceived Stress Scale (PSS)", "State Anxiety Scale (SAS)" and "Short Form-36 (SF-36) Quality of Life Scale" were used to collect the data. Frequency and percentage analyses, chi-square analysis, standard deviation, dependent groups t-test, independent groups t-test and regression analysis were used to analyse the data. In the study, it was found that the mean total and sub-dimension scores of the PSS and the mean total score of the SAS decreased statistically significantly (p<0.05), while there was a significant increase in the mean SF-36 scores of the caregivers in the intervention group (p<0.05). As a result, it was found that mandala colouring decreased the perceived stress and anxiety level and increased the quality of life in palliative caregivers. In this respect, mandala colouring can be recommended to be used by nurses due to its positive effects on palliative caregivers. Key Words: Perceived Stress, Anxiety, Mandala Colouring, Palliative Caregivers, Quality of Life