Effectiveness of Swedish Massage Therapy on Stress and Blood Pressure Among Patients with Hypertension

Hypertension is a major public health problem in the world because of its high frequency and concomitant risk of cardiovascular and kidney disease. Among the chronic diseases in India, the most prevalent one is Hypertension. The American Heart Association (2013) estimated that In India (2013) about 972 million people suffer from hypertension. It is anticipated that the number of people with hypertension will increase in future posing major issues to the health and quality of life of people. The present study was conducted to determine the effectiveness of Swedish massage therapy on stress and blood pressure among patients with hypertension in hypertension OPD. The research design adopted was randomized controlled trial. The tool used for the study was perceived stress assessment scale to assess the stress and mercury sphygmomanometer to measure the blood pressure. Swedish massage therapy (SMT) was given to patients in the study group twice with 15 days interval. Blood pressure and stress level were assessed before and after each intervention. The study group showed significant reduction of stress level from (18.13) to (13.80) (pless than0.01) and in the control group (18.33) to (21.53). The mean value of systolic blood pressure (128.67) and diastolic blood pressure (85.8) in the study group during posttest-II showed a significant reduction than the control group in which the mean value of systolic blood pressure (140.8) and diastolic blood pressure (92.2) remained high. Hence, Swedish massage therapy was found to be effective in reducing the level of stress and blood pressure among patients with hypertension.