Effect of progressive muscle relaxation in adults with anxiety symptoms

Abstract

Objective: to evaluate the effectiveness of applying Jacobson's progressive muscle relaxation technique in reducing mild and moderate anxiety symptoms in adults. Method: quasi-experimental study, with a sample of 108 adult users of the Family Health Strategy, carried out from March to August 2019. For descriptive and inferential statistical analysis, the following were used: measures of central tendency, Pearson's Chi-Square Test, Exact Fisher, Mann-Whitney and Wilcoxon (5% significance level). Results: at first, the groups were homogeneous in terms of characteristics (p=0.707) and anxiety levels scores (p=0.463). In the second moment, they showed heterogeneity and independence related to characteristics (p=0.001) and scores (p=0.001). Conclusion: the application of the technique showed an improvement in anxiety symptoms in the experimental group (p=0.001), with greater effectiveness in participants with mild symptoms (p=0.010), female, young adult, history of recent stressful situation and with problems with sleep (p<0.001).