To explore the effect of emotional ABC theory-based cognitive education on the emotions of lung cancer patients and their families and quality of life of patients.

From January 2019 to January 2022, 111 lung cancer patients and 111 main caregivers admitted to the First Affiliated Hospital of Zhengzhou University were selected as the study subject by convenience sampling. 55 patients and 55 main caregivers enrolled from January 2019 to June 2020 were assigned to the control group, and 56 patients and 56 main caregivers enrolled from July 2020 to January 2022 were assigned to the experimental group. The main caregivers in the control group adopted conventional cognitive education, while the main caregivers in the experimental group adopted cognitive education based on emotional ABC theory on the basis of the control group. A survey was conducted on patients and their main caregivers using the Positive and Negative Affect Scale (PANAS) and the Functional Assessment of Cancer Therapy-Lung (FACT-L) to compare the negative emotions of the two groups of main caregivers and patients, as well as quality of life of patients before and after intervention.

There was no statistically significant difference in PANAS scores between the two groups of main caregivers and patients before intervention (P>0.05). After intervention, the PANAS scores of the main caregivers and patients in both groups decreased, and the scores in the experimental group were lower than those in the control group, with statistical differences (P<0.05). There was no statistically significant difference in scores of physical well being, social/family well being, relationship with doctor, emotional well being, functional well being, additional attention, and total score in FACT-L between the two groups of patients before intervention (P>0.05). After intervention, the scores of physical well being, social/family well being, relationship with doctor, emotional well being, functional well being, additional attention, and total score in FACT-L of the experimental group patients were higher than those of the control group, and the differences were statistically significant (P<0.05) .

Emotional ABC theory-based cognitive education for lung cancer patients and their main caregivers can alleviate the negative emotions of the main caregivers and patients, and improve patients' quality of life.

Lung neoplasms; Emotional ABC theory; Main caregivers; Cognitive education; Quality of life