The effect of progressive relaxation exercise on coping with stress and psychososcial adjustment in individuals with liver transplantation

Objective: The aim of the study was to evaluate the effect of progressive relaxation exercise on coping with stress and psychososcial adjustment in individuals with liver transplantation. Method: The study is a single-blind randomized controlled trial designed as pre-test, post-test and follow-up. The study was conducted with 46 individuals (23 interventions, 23 controls) who had liver transplants in Dr. Tuncer Karpuzoğlu Organ Transplantation Research and Application Center in Akdeniz University Hospital. Data were collected between March 2018 and March 2019 using Personal Information Form, Stress Coping Style Scale and Psychososcial Adjustment to Illness Scale Self-Report Individuals in the intervention group received 4 weeks of progressive relaxation exercise. The analysis was evaluated using SPSS 20.0 package program, Mann-Whitney U test, Friedman's Two-Way for repeated measurements, and Chi-Square analysis to determine the relationships between categorical data. Results: 82.6% of the individuals in the intervention group were male and 43.5% were in the 48-57 age range. Transplantation of 91.3% of the individuals was performed from living donors. There was a statistically significant increase in self-confident and optimistic approach subscale mean scores of the coping styles of the individuals in the intervention group (p <0.001), and statistically significant decrease in the mean score of desperate approach subscales (p <0.001). There was a statistically significant change (p <0.001) in the total and all subscale scores, posttest and follow-up evaluation of the Psychososcial Adjustment to Illness Scale Self-Report of the individuals in the intervention group. Conclusion: Results of progressive relaxation exercise after liver transplantation; it makes it easier to coping with stress in individuals and increase their psychososcial adjustment to the disease. It is recommended to use progressive relaxation exercise as a nursing intervention in post-transplant care. Key words: liver transplantation, coping with stress, psychososcial adjustment, psychiatric nursing, progressive relaxation