Effect of Relaxation Training on Future Anxiety, Sleep Quality and Pain among Hemodialysis Patients.

Background: Anxiety, sleep disturbances and pain are greatly prevailing in patients with chronic disease but little attention is given to them even with substantial undesirable penalties on patients' health. This study aimed to examine the effect of relaxation training on future anxiety, sleep quality, and pain among hemodialysis patients. Methods: Quasi- experimental pre-test/post-test control group design was used to gather data from a convenience sample of 120 patients undergoing hemodialysis who attending the medical outpatients clinic at Shebin El- Kom Teaching Hospital, Menoufia Governorate, Egypt. Five tools were used to collect the data; 1) Interviewing questionnaire to assess socio-demographic and clinical data, 2) Future anxiety scale 3) McGill pain questionnaire 4) Brief pain inventory 5) Sleep quality scale. Results: The study revealed that there was a highly statistically significant reduction in mean score of future anxiety and pain among the intervention group at post-test (37.12±8.01., 2.47±0.62) compared to (48.07± 11.29., 4.53± 1.33) in the control group where P2<0.001. Also, there was a highly statistically significant improvement in the mean score of sleep quality among the intervention group at post-test (28.43±6.38) compared to (44.55±7.76) in the control group where P2 <0.001.Conclusion: The application of relaxation training that includes Benson's relaxation technique and sleep hygiene was successful in reducing future anxiety, pain, and enhancing sleep quality among hemodialysis patients. Recommendation: The relaxation training should be provided to all health care providers to help the patients undergoing hemodialysis to overcome anxiety, insomnia, and pain. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]