Reducing Appearance Anxiety and Improving Holistic Well-Being for Women with Polycystic Ovary Syndrome: An Integrative Intervention

Background and Purpose:Women with polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) may suffer from hirsutism, acne, obese and dull skin, thus they are easy to become anxious towards appearance, and have low levels of well-being. Yet few studies have focused on the intervention to reduce their appearance anxiety and improve their well-being in the Chinese context. This study was conducted to determine the effects of an Integrative Body-Mind-Spirit (I-BMS) intervention model on appearance anxiety and holistic well-being in women with PCOS in China.

Methods:This study was conducted from November 2019 to August 2020, enrolled 26 women aged between 21 and 33 years old from the HKU-Shenzhen hospital in Shenzhen, China. Besides of a two-hour health lecture, all participants received 6 weekly I-BMS sessions around 3 hours each. Each group contained 8-10 participants. Themes of the six I-BMS sessions were: recognize illness uncertainty, identify objectified experiences, find one’s own beauty, self-acceptance and self-care, transformation through loss, and build resilience. Questionnaires were distributed to all participants before the intervention [T0], immediately after the intervention [T1] and at two-month follow-up [T2]. Appearance Anxiety Scale, General Self-Efficacy Scale and Body-Mind-Spirit Holistic Well-being Scale were used to measure participants’ appearance anxiety, self-efficacy and holistic well-being, respectively.

Results:21 participants completed all the three times of measurement. Results of the intention-to-treat analysis (n=26) revealed a significant decrease in participants’ appearance anxiety (d=-0.58, p<0.01) and a significant increase in their self-efficacy (d=0.32, p<0.05) and holistic well-being (d=0.71, p<0.001) at post-intervention (T1). The effect continued at T2, meaning that participants’ appearance anxiety reduced significantly (F=4.86, p<0.05, η²=0.29), and their self-efficacy (F=3.75, p<0.05, η²=0.24) and holistic well-being (F=7.80, p<0.01, η²=0.39) improved significantly over time.

Conclusions and Implications:The results showed that I-BMS model was efficacious to reduce appearance anxiety and improve holistic well-being for women with PCOS in China. This study provided an effective model for social workers and group counselors to care for women with PCOS.