The effects of progressive muscle relaxation exercise on dementia caregivers.

While progressive muscle relaxation has demonstrated effectiveness in reducing anxiety, stress, and depression in general populations, its impact on caregivers of dementia patients remains understudied. This study investigated the effectiveness of Progressive Muscle Relaxation (PMR) in improving the well-being of dementia caregivers. Caregivers of individuals with dementia (n = 57) participated in a 3-month intervention, engaging in PMR thrice weekly. Participants completed assessments of depression, anxiety, stress, and caregiver burden at pre-test and post-intervention period. The intervention led to significant reductions in anxiety, stress, depression, and caregiver burden among participants. Female caregivers reported to have higher levels of anxiety and stress compared to males. Caregivers under financial stress showed high levels of distress and increased caregiver burden. These promising findings suggest the need for further research with larger, multicenter samples. Notably, PMR is a readily implementable intervention by nurses, requiring minimal equipment and offering a cost-effective approach to supporting caregiver well-being.

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Déclaration de conflit d'intérêts

Declaration of competing interest The authors declare the following financial interests/personal relationships which may be considered as potential competing interests: Dilek Baykal reports administrative support, article publishing charges, equipment, drugs, or supplies, statistical analysis, travel, and writing assistance were provided by Istanbul Atlas University. Basar Bilgic reports administrative support, article publishing charges, equipment, drugs, or supplies, statistical analysis, travel, and writing assistance were provided by Istanbul University Istanbul Faculty of Medicine. Dilek Baykal reports a relationship with Istanbul Atlas University that includes: non-financial support. Basar Bilgic reports a relationship with Istanbul University Istanbul Faculty of Medicine that includes: non-financial support. The authors declare no conflict of interest related to this work. If there are other authors, they declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.