The Effectiveness of Acceptance and Commitment Therapy on Health Anxiety and Body Image Flexibility among women with Polycystic Ovary Syndrome

Aghili, Seyed Mojtaba; Mokhtari, Helen

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The Effectiveness of Acceptance and Commitment Therapy on Health Anxiety and Body Image Flexibility among women with Polycystic Ovary Syndrome

Seyed Mojtaba Aghili ^*

, Helen Mokhtari

Abstract: (21 Views)

Background and Objectives: Polycystic ovary syndrome is one of the most common endocrine disorders in women of reproductive age. The present study aimed to investigate the effectiveness of Acceptance and Commitment Therapy on health anxiety and body image flexibility among women with Polycystic Ovary Syndrome.

Materials and Methods: This study employed a quasi-experimental design using a pretest–posttest control group approach. The statistical population consisted of all women diagnosed with PCOS who attended Hakim Jorjani and Sayyad hospitals in Gorgan, Iran, in 2025. A total of 30 participants were selected through purposive sampling and randomly assigned to either the experimental group (n=15) or the control group (n=15). Data were collected using the Health Anxiety Inventory developed by Salkovskis et al. (2002) and the Body Image Acceptance and Action Questionnaire developed by Sandoz et al. (2013). The collected data were analyzed using univariate and multivariate analyses of covariance (ANCOVA and MANCOVA) in SPSS version 24 at a 95% confidence level.

Results: The findings indicated that, after controlling for pretest scores, significant differences were observed between the experimental and control groups in posttest health anxiety and body image flexibility. In other words, Acceptance and Commitment Therapy significantly reduced health anxiety (F=31.29, P=0.001, η2=0.54) and enhanced body image flexibility (F=52.36, P=0.001, η2=0.66) among women with Polycystic Ovary Syndrome.

Conclusion: Overall, the findings indicated that Acceptance and Commitment Therapy can contribute to improving the psychological well-being of women with polycystic ovary syndrome by reducing health anxiety and enhancing body image flexibility. Accordingly, therapists and healthcare professionals may consider Acceptance and Commitment Therapy as a complementary psychological intervention within the care and treatment programs for these women.

Open Access Policy: This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. To view a copy of this license, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Keywords: Polycystic Ovary Syndrome, Hypochondriasis, Body Image, Acceptance and Commitment Therapy, Women

Type of Study: Research | Subject: Health psychology
Received: 2026/04/28 | Accepted: 2026/09/16

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