The effect of progressive relaxation exercises on pain, fatigue and quality of life in dialysis patient

Patients receiving hemodialysis treatment may experience several symptoms at the same time, such as fatigue and pain. When these symptoms are not controlled, they may affect all life areas and quality of life of the patient negatively. Progressive relaxation exercises, one of the complementary treatment methods, have been reported to have positive effect on the control of these symptoms. Thus, in order to examine the effect of progressive relaxation exercises (PRE) on pain, fatigue and quality of life in hemodialysis patients, an experimental study was conducted with 48 intervention and 48 control patients who were receiving treatment in the Hemodialysis Units of Gaziantep Avukat Cengiz Gökçek State Hospital and Adıyaman State Hospital, who fulfilled the requirements of the research and who volunteered to participate in the study. Data were collected by a questionnaire prepared by the researcher, which included questions about socio-demographic variables and the disease; Piper Fatigue Scale; Visual Analog Scale which measures pain severity; and SF-36 Quality of Life Scale. At the end of the study, it was determined that mean total fatigue score decreased from 4.38±1.51 to 2.61±1.61 and mean pain score decreased from 3.02±1.99 to 1.18±1.73 in the intervention group after the application of PRE; whereas no change was observed in the control group (p<0.05). It was also found that quality of life Physical Component (PC) mean score increased from 49.06±21.45 to 66.97±21.32 and Mental Component (MC) mean score increased from 49.55±20.42 to 65.49±19.42 in the intervention group after the application of PRE (p<0.05). According to the research results, PRE was effective in decreasing fatigue and pain severity, and improving quality of life. Therefore, it may be suggested that PRE, which is one of the complementary methods, should be applied to patients together with pharmacological methods in order to decrease symptoms like fatigue and pain and to increase quality of life.