A Study to Assess the Effectiveness of Inhalation Aromatherapy on Quality of Sleep and Fatigue among Elderly Residing in selected Old Age Homes of Kannur District.

Abstract

The present study was undertaken to assess the effectiveness of Inhalation Aromatherapy on quality of sleep and fatigue among elderly. The objectives of the study were to assess the level of quality of sleep and fatigue, evaluate the effectiveness of Inhalation Aromatherapy, correlate quality of sleep and fatigue, and find the association between quality of sleep and fatigue with demographic variables. Pre-experimental one group pre-test post-test design was used for this study. Purposive sampling technique was used and 40 elderly people were taken from the Kripa Charitable Trust, Kannur. In pretest, Modified Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index and Fatigue Severity Scale were used for assessing the quality of sleep and fatigue. Investigator administered Inhalation Aromatherapy by applying one drop of lavender angustifolia essential oil on a piece of cotton and placed under the pillow at the night before sleep for a period of 5 days. Posttest was done on 6thday. Descriptive and inferential statistics were used to analyze the findings of the study. The result revealed that the Mean Pretest MPSQI score (10.38) and the Mean Pretest FSS score (43.3) were significantly higher than the Mean Posttest MPSQI score (7.95) and the Mean PosttestFSSscore (40.8). Thecomputed ‘t’valuefor MPSQI was4.38 and FSS score was 2.99 (t39=1.685 at 0.05 level of significance). It indicated that there was a significant increase in the quality of sleep and decrease in level of fatigue after Inhalation Aromatherapy. There was a significant high positive correlation found between pretest quality of sleep and level of fatigue (r=0.849), and no association between quality of sleep and level of fatigue with demographic variables. The findings of the study interpreted that the practice of Inhalation Aromatherapyiseffective in improving the sleep quality and reducing fatigue among elderly residing in old age home.