The effect of progressive muscle relaxation on sleep quality and fatigue among pre-hospital emergency staff in the center of management of accident and medical emergency in Golestan Province

Background and aims: Poor sleep and fatigue are common problems among the pre-hospital emergency staff. Pre-hospital personnel shift work can have negative effects on job performance, sleep quality, physical health, mental health, drug consumption, and job stress. One of the complementary and nonpharmacologic interventions to reduce sleep disturbances and fatigue is progressive muscular relaxation. Few studies carried on sleep and fatigue in pre-hospital emergency personnel. This study aimed to determine the effect of progressive muscle relaxation on sleep quality and fatigue of pre-hospital emergencies' staff. Methods: This interventional study (2015) was conducted among the Pre-hospital emergency staff at Center of Accident and Medical emergencies in Golestan province. From the pre-hospital personnel with poor quality of sleep (>5) 72 of them were selected with simple random sampling method and were allocated into the intervention and control groups. In the intervention group the participants practiced progressive muscle relaxation technique twice a day for 45 days. The control group received no special action. Before and after the intervention using the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality and fatigue questionnaire, the quality of sleep and fatigue were examined and compared. The data were analyzed by statistical tests at significance level p<0.05. Results: There was a significant difference between the score of sleep quality and fatigue of prehospital personnel in the experimental and control groups before and after the intervention (p<0.001). In the experimental group and after progressive muscle relaxation, sleep quality score decreased from 11.63 ± 2.57 to 3.53±1.63 and fatigue score also reduced from of 51.97±11.59 to 31.5± 5.04 (p<0.001). In the control group the score of sleep quality changed from 10.69±2.35 to 9.27± 2.77 and fatigue score increased from 49.33±12.07 to 58.66± 8.6 (p