The Effect of Aerobic Exercise on Occupational Stress of Female Nurses: A Controlled Clinical Trial

A Pragmatic Comparison Between Aerobic Exercise and Suryanamaskar in Stress Management in Medical Professionals: A Quasi-experimental Study

Background

Stress is an episodic process in an individual’s life that depends upon the circumstances that elicit this process, later jeopardizing an individual’s mental balance and leading to depression and anxiety. Yoga is a traditional component of physical activity that contains three main domains, namely, maintaining the correct posture (asanas), control over one’s breath (pranayama) and meditation with complete concentration (dhyana), which are proven to be effective in enhancing the psychological, physical, and spiritual wellbeing of an individual along with mindfulness. The purpose of the present study was to compare aerobic exercise (AE) and Suryanamaskar (SN) in terms of the best intervention in lowering the level of stress in medical professionals (MPs).

Methods

A quasi-experimental study including a pragmatic comparison was conducted involving 30 participants who were divided into two groups A and B. The participants in group A did treadmill walking and the participants in group B were made to perform the complete cycle of SN with all the 12 asanas for four weeks.

Results

The outcomes demonstrated that both AE and SN had significant statistical values in terms of pre- and post-intervention Perceived Stress Scale (PSS) scores, resting heart rate, and systolic and diastolic blood pressure. Also, when post-intervention mean values of both the groups were compared for all the parameters, only mean PSS values were found to be statistically significant.

Conclusion

The current study concluded that both AE and SN were beneficial in decreasing the level of stress in MPs with SN being statistically more significant in reducing stress levels than AE. Both interventions are safe to perform.

Reducing Work-related Stress in Nursing Personnel: Applying an Intervention

Objective: To compare the levels of ex-post-facto stress between nursing personnel who participated in an educational intervention with nursing personnel on work duties, within the hospital work environment. Materials and method: This was an observational and cross-sectional study. The final sample was composed of 30 nursing personnel, with 15 of them composing the group exposed to the intervention and 15 being selected by simple random sampling to compose the unexposed group. The intervention consisted of a program focused on the employees, structured in four sessions, applied in a course format twice a week, and lasted two months. The Student’s t-test for independent samples and the Mann-Whitney U-test were used to compare the groups. Results: Using the Mann-Whitney U-test, the stress levels could be compared between the groups, and a statistical difference in stress levels was observed between the control group (3.34 ± 0.71 a.u.) and the intervention group (2.52 ± 0.59 a.u.) (p = 0.002; d = 1.26). Conclusions: Comparing the general stress levels between the groups, it was found that the intervention significantly decreased the stress levels in the participants; it was also possible to identify the mental stressors faced by the participants using the Scale of Stress in Professionals.

The Role of Stress in Breast Cancer Incidence: Risk Factors, Interventions, and Directions for the Future

Stress is a common belief among breast cancer patients and the public to explain variation in breast cancer incidence. Epidemiological studies interrogating the relationship between stress and cancer have reported mixed results. The impact of the topic and the lack of consensus has sparked this review of the literature to investigate gaps in knowledge and identify areas of research. We first present a brief summary of the biopsychosocial model generally used to conduct research on stress. We then divide the overview of the literature into areas of research focus. These include the role of distressing life events in breast cancer incidence, the role of adverse childhood events in later breast cancer incidence, the importance of race and socioeconomic status (SES) as social determinants of breast cancer incidence, and the specific role of chronic stress in relation to breast cancer. For each topic, we discuss the potential of stress as a risk factor and possible intervention strategies that could reduce the effects of stress. We then identify further research questions to be probed to fill the gaps in knowledge. We conclude with a discussion of future research directions for stress research as it relates to breast cancer incidence.