Effects of an individualised physical rehabilitation intervention enhanced by progressive muscular relaxation and visualisation exercises on psycho-emotional state in women after breast cancer surgery
Affiliations: [a] Department of Theory and Methods of Physical Culture, Lviv State University of Physical Culture, Lviv, Ukraine
| [b] Department of Theory of Sport and Physical Culture, Lviv State University of Physical Culture, Lviv, Ukraine
| [c] Department of Physical Rehabilitation, Khortytsia National Academy, Ukraine
| [d] Department of Theory and Methods of Physical Culture and Sports, Zaporizhzhya National University, Ukraine
Correspondence:
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Corresponding author: Tetiana Odynets, Doctor of Science, Assistant Professor, Department of Theory of Sport
and Physical Culture, Lviv State University of Physical Culture, 11 Kostiushko Street, Lviv 79000, Ukraine. Fax:
+380 032 255 32 08; E-mail: tatyana01121985@gmail.com.
Abstract: PURPOSE:Present study aimed to determine the effects of muscular relaxation and visualisation exercises on psycho-emotional state in women after breast cancer surgery during a 4-week individualised intervention. METHODS:The sample size of 51 women was chosen to perform the investigation. Women had undergone surgical treatment (radical mastectomy by Madden) for breast cancer. Participants reported anxiety and depression using the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale at baseline, and 4-week post-intervention. They were randomly assigned for the group A (n = 26) that received progressive muscular relaxation and visualization exercises in addition to individualised physical rehabilitation intervention, and the group B (n = 25) only received individualised physical rehabilitation intervention. RESULTS:It was found that psycho-emotional parameters steadily improved in both groups during a 4-week individualised intervention. However, based on the results of the 4-week monitoring, it has been established that using progressive muscular relaxation and visualization exercises in addition to the individualised physical intervention are more effective for reducing self-reported anxiety in women at hospital inpatient department. The post-intervention level of anxiety was statistically lower in women of the group A compared with the group B by 2.52 points (p < 0.05). CONCLUSIONS:These findings showed that progressive muscular relaxation and visualization exercises were effective interventions that had a favorable impact on anxiety in women after breast cancer surgery.
Keywords: Anxiety, rehabilitation, breast cancer, psychological distress
