Effect of Jacobson’s Progressive Relaxation Technique Over Sleep Disturbances and Quality of Life in Chronic Rheumatoid Arthritis

Background: Rheumatoid arthritis is a chronic inflammatory disease of the immune system affecting the synovial tissue of the joint, tendon sheath and bursae. The symptoms are joint pain, stiffness, joint swelling, deformity, functional disability and sleep disturbance. Rheumatoid arthritis is three times more frequent in women than men. There are various study done on Rheumatoid arthritis on their pain management and reducing deformity but there is lack of study on their sleep disturbance and quality of life. Objective: To find out the effect of Jacobson’s progressive relaxation technique on sleep disturbance and quality of life in chronic Rheumatoid Arthritis. Methodology: Experimental study with a convenient sampling of 30 Rheumatoid arthritis subjects with age group of 20-70 years received Jacobson’s progressive relaxation technique 1 session per day for 10 days. Outcome Measures: Sleep disturbance was evaluated using Pittsburgh sleep quality index (PSQI) and quality of life was evaluated by using Short form health survey-36(SF-36) Results: Statistical analysis was done by SPSS software version 22, which showed significant improvement in both sleep disturbance and quality of life in chronic Rheumatoid Arthritis. Conclusion: Thus, Jacobson’s progressive relaxation technique has shown significant result in improving sleep disturbance and quality of life in chronic Rheumatoid Arthritis.