Comparison of the Effectiveness of Mindfulness Training and Massage-Aromatherapy on Rising Psychological Health of Elderly Women with Chronic Pain

Background and Objec ti ve: One of the most common signs of aging that e ff ects on health is a chronic pain. There are various methods to improve health such as mindfulness and massage-aromatherapy. This study aimed to compare the e ff ec ti veness of mindfulness training and massage-aromatherapy on psychological health of elderly women with chronic pain. Materials and Methods: Present study was a Quasi-experimental with pre-test and post-test design. Research popula ti on was elderly women with chronic pain referring to clinics of rehabilita ti on, orthopedic and physiotherapy of west Tehran in 2017. 45 people were selected by available sampling method and randomly assigned into three group. Experimental groups trained 8 sessions of 90 minutes by methods of mindfulness and massage-aromatherapy, respec ti vely and the control group was placed on the wai ti ng list for training. The research instruments were the ques ti onnaires of perceived stress, geriatric depression, quality of life and percep ti on of pain. Data were analyzed by mul ti variate analysis of covariance and Bonferroni post hoc test methods. Results: The fi ndings showed that both methods of mindfulness training and massage-aromatherapy led to signi fi cant decrease the perceived stress and depression of elderly women with chronic pain, but didn’t have a signi fi cant e ff ect on their quality of life and percep ti on of pain. Also, there was no signi fi cant di ff erence between two methods of mindfulness training and massage-aromatherapy (P<0/05). Conclusion: The results indicated the e ff ec ti veness of mindfulness training and massage-aromatherapy on perceived stress and depression of elderly women with chronic pain. Therefore, these methods can be used along with other methods to improve some characteris ti cs associated with psychological health.