Effect of Relaxation Techniques to Reduce the Stress among Senior Citizens

Stress is the emotional and physical strain caused as a result of our response to what happens around us. Stress is a multidimensional phenomenon which is focused on dynamic relationship between the individual and the environment. It is also defined as a stressor, individual's response to the stimuli and interaction between the individual and the environment. It should be noted that some degree of stress can be effective on increasing and improving individual's performance. Evidences indicate that most of the human successes are created in stressful conditions; but high rate of stress would followed by numerous consequences, including mental and physical illnesses, sleep disorders, restlessness, irritability, forgetfulness, abnormal fatigue, reduced individual's resistance and recurrent infections, headaches, poor concentration, memory impairment and reduce in problem solving ability. In relation to age, 37% of the samples were in age group of 66- 70 years. The assessment of level of stress shows that 13% of the senior citizens are having mild stress level, 80% of them having moderate stress level, 7% of them are having highly perceived stress level. Comparison of pre-test and post ?test level of stress among senior citizens shows the overall pre- test stress score among senior citizens was 58.1 with standard deviation of 12.36. And the post- test, they had scored 19.63 with standard deviation of 5.83. It is statistically significant. Difference between pre-test and post-test stress analysed by using paired t- test. There was significant association found between the post test level of stress and demographic variables such as religion, marital status, monthly income and source information about relaxation techniques. Education in evidence based care gives the opportunity to nurses to improve their ability to use theoretical knowledge in practice. Stress is the factors which causes more psychological problems in our life. It occurs when a person has difficulty dealing with life situations, problems and goals. Each person handles stress differently; someone can thrive in a situation that creates great distress for another.