Abstract

Introduction: cancer is a chronic disease causing pain, limitness, malformation and death in patients and especially in old people with cancer. The self-esteem is a significant source of any person and in patients with cancer may become a stressor. Use of non-pharmacological methods such as motivational interview is effective approach to develop self-care programs that promote patients' self-esteem and help them cope with cancer. Methods: The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of motivational interview on elderly (60) suffering from cancer at the chemotherapy department of Mostafa hospital, Ilam, 2018. This statistical society is randomly divided in to two groups of intervention and controls. Data were collected using cooper smiths self esteem questionnaire. The measured variables include: independent variable (motivational- interview), dependent variable (self-esteem) as well as demographic variables. SPSS 20 was used to analyse data using appropriate statistical tests. Results: According to our findings, mean scores in intervention and controls were 31.63 +/- 3/1 and 25.13 +/- 1/9, respectively. There was a significant statistical difference between the two groups (p=000/0) indicating positive effect of motivational interview on increasing the mean scores of self-esteems. Conclusions: The use of motivational interview has a positive effect on the level of self-esteem among old people and raising level of self-esteem.