THE EFFECTIVENESS OF COMPASSION-BASED TREATMENT ON BLOOD PRESSURE, HEART RATE, AND BODY MASS INDEX OF EMERGENCY MEDICAL SERVICES WORKERS WITH COVID-19

With the spread of the SARS‑CoV‑2 virus in the world, emergency medical services (EMS) workers have suffered physical and mental problems, which required therapeutic interventions. The present study was conducted with the aim of determining the effectiveness of compassion-based treatment on blood pressure, heart rate, and body mass index of emergency medical workers infected with the Covid-19

The current research was of semi-experimental study using pre-test and post-test statistical analyzes along with the control group. The statistical population in this research included all emergency medical staff of Mashhad city, Iran infected with Corona in 2021. From this population, 40 people were selected by purposeful sampling method and were randomly selected by lottery method in two experimental groups (20 people) and control group (20 people). The treatment was based on compassion and implemented in the form of 8 sessions of 90 minutes and once a week for the experimental group, and the control group did not receive any intervention. The measuring tool was a German Richter mercury sphygmomanometer with an arm cuff. The participants were measured in terms of blood pressure, heart rate, and body mass index in the pre-test and post-test stages. For data analysis, univariate covariance analysis was used with SPSS version 26 software.

According to the results of this research, compassion-based treatment had an effect on blood pressure, heart rate, and body mass index of emergency medical workers infected with the SARS‑CoV‑2 (P < 0.01). The extent of this effect was 0.32 on systolic blood pressure, 0.51 on diastolic blood pressure, 0.41 on heart rate, and 0.35 body mass index, based on Eta-squared measure.

Considering the effect of compassion-based treatment on blood pressure, heart rate, and body mass index of emergency medical workers infected with the SARS‑CoV‑2 virus, it is suggested that counselors and therapists use the approach of compassion-based treatment in reducing the problems of emergency medical workers.