Student Stress Levels and Management Through Meditation
| Status: | Completed |
|---|---|
| Conditions: | Psychiatric |
| Therapuetic Areas: | Psychiatry / Psychology |
| Healthy: | No |
| Age Range: | 22 - 45 |
| Updated: | 2/13/2019 |
| Start Date: | January 2015 |
| End Date: | April 2016 |
Physical Therapist Doctoral Student Stress Levels and Management Through Meditation
The professional program in Physical Therapy is rigorous and demanding on students, resulting
in high levels of fatigue, stress, and sleep disturbance that can impact student performance
and wellbeing. This project seeks to investigate ways to reduce student stress, monitor their
quality of sleep and possibly enhance their learning through the practice of meditation.
in high levels of fatigue, stress, and sleep disturbance that can impact student performance
and wellbeing. This project seeks to investigate ways to reduce student stress, monitor their
quality of sleep and possibly enhance their learning through the practice of meditation.
Utilizing a randomized controlled study design, a cohort of doctoral students in their first
year of physical therapist education will undergo an 8 week intervention of a mantra-based
Meditation (twice daily 20 minutes) with pre and post measures of blood pressure, sleep
hygiene via the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI) and stress surveys, including Perceived
Stress Scale (PSS) and Visual Analogue Scale for stress (VAS), as well as daily logs of sleep
to assess sleep quality.
As many as 32 students (total number in cohort) per year may participate with 1/2 serving as
controls and 1/2 undergoing the meditation practice for 8 weeks.
Baseline measurement details:
QUESTIONNAIRES: Each participant will be given a 1-item Visual Analogue Scale for stress
(VAS), a 10 item Perceived Stress Scale (PSS), and a 9 item Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index
(PSQI) questionnaire. The VAS simply asks subjects to score how much stress they are feeling
at that one moment in time on a 0-100 scale. The PSQI scores and assesses sleep quality and
disturbances over a 1-month time interval and will be administered at the 4 week mark 1/2 way
into the study as well as at pre and post intervention data collection events.
BLOOD PRESSURE: Blood pressure will be measured individually in a separate room to ensure
confidentiality. The BP measurements will be administered using an Omron professional
automatic blood pressure monitor (model number HEM 907X) to ensure comfort/safety and the
accuracy of the reading. Also for accuracy of blood pressure measurements subjects will be
asked to refrain from caffeine (coffee, tea or chocolate), cigarettes/nicotine, or exercise
that morning until after measurements are taken and avoid alcohol the evening prior. One
identified researcher will take all blood pressure reading and will be blinded to which
subjects are part of the research or the control groups.
year of physical therapist education will undergo an 8 week intervention of a mantra-based
Meditation (twice daily 20 minutes) with pre and post measures of blood pressure, sleep
hygiene via the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI) and stress surveys, including Perceived
Stress Scale (PSS) and Visual Analogue Scale for stress (VAS), as well as daily logs of sleep
to assess sleep quality.
As many as 32 students (total number in cohort) per year may participate with 1/2 serving as
controls and 1/2 undergoing the meditation practice for 8 weeks.
Baseline measurement details:
QUESTIONNAIRES: Each participant will be given a 1-item Visual Analogue Scale for stress
(VAS), a 10 item Perceived Stress Scale (PSS), and a 9 item Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index
(PSQI) questionnaire. The VAS simply asks subjects to score how much stress they are feeling
at that one moment in time on a 0-100 scale. The PSQI scores and assesses sleep quality and
disturbances over a 1-month time interval and will be administered at the 4 week mark 1/2 way
into the study as well as at pre and post intervention data collection events.
BLOOD PRESSURE: Blood pressure will be measured individually in a separate room to ensure
confidentiality. The BP measurements will be administered using an Omron professional
automatic blood pressure monitor (model number HEM 907X) to ensure comfort/safety and the
accuracy of the reading. Also for accuracy of blood pressure measurements subjects will be
asked to refrain from caffeine (coffee, tea or chocolate), cigarettes/nicotine, or exercise
that morning until after measurements are taken and avoid alcohol the evening prior. One
identified researcher will take all blood pressure reading and will be blinded to which
subjects are part of the research or the control groups.
Inclusion Criteria:
- Graduate student in the first year of the Doctorate of Physical Therapy (DPT) program
at California State University, Northridge (CSUN)
Exclusion Criteria:
- Taking blood pressure or sleep medication; or already currently practicing a daily
meditation.
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