The Effect of Jacobson Relaxation on the Happiness of Family Caregivers of Hemodialysis Patients

Caring for patients with hemodialysis brings unhappiness by imposing the burden of care on family caregivers.

The present study aimed to determine the effect of Jacobson relaxation on happiness of hemodialysis patients’ cargivers.

The present study is quasi-experimental with pre-test, post-test design and a control group. The statistical population included family caregivers referred to one selected military Hospital in Tehran during 2020 and 2021, of which 70 people were selected by convenience sampling method and randomly divided into intervention and control groups. The instrument was a demographic information questionnaire and the Oxford Happiness scale. Intervention group undergone a 30-45 minute relaxation techniques three times a week for 30 days. Caregivers’ happiness was measured before the intervention, two weeks later and one month after the intervention. Data were analyzed by SPSS 16. The significance level was considered less than 0.05.

The mean of happiness before the intervention was 35.31 ± 6.26 and 36.35±5.41 in the intervention and control groups, respectively, which was not statistically significant (P=0.47). However, after the intervention, it was 40.41±6.96 and 36.59±5.54. It reached 46.19±6.90 and 36.47±5.31 one month later, which showed a significant difference between the two groups (P <0.001). There was a significant difference in the intervention group. The happiness rate increased within-group comparison (P<0.001). Those three periods were not significantly differentin the control group (P= 0.30).

Jacobson relaxation technique is one of the effective methods in promoting the happiness of family caregivers of patients undergoing hemodialysis. It isrecommened to use in the families of these patients.