ABSTRACT

Mental health is defined as well-being of emotional, psychological and social status. There are multiple biological and psychological factors that trigger anxiety, stress and depression such as extreme workload, traumatic incidents, chronic illness, dependency, feelings of deprivation, lack of emotional contentment, social stressors, multiple responsibilities and inability to manage internal fears. These issues can be rehabilitated by progressive relaxation and aerobic exercises. It improves negative thoughts, mood swings and develops cognitive function. This randomized control trial was conducted among 87 medical students. The purposive sampling was done and data was collected through designated questionnaire and scales. Total numbers of 87 medical students were screened for mental conditions and 20 out of 87 students had positive score for stress, anxiety and depression. The candidates fulfilling the inclusion and exclusion criteria were randomly allocated in two equal groups’ i.e. experimental group in which progressive relaxation exercises (PRE) were administered and control group in which aerobic exercises were administered. The data was analyzed using statistical package for social sciences (SPSS) version 21. Independent t-test was applied to find out differences between control and experimental group. A p-value of <0.05 was considered significant. This study was conducted among 20 participants of age 18 to 24 with mean age of 20 ±1.986having moderate to severe scores for depression, stress and anxiety. Independent-t test showed significant post treatment results as per evaluated by DASS 42 in PRE i.e. experimental group with p-value of 0.032 for anxiety, 0.013 for stress and 0.042 for depression respectively, whereas in Aerobic exercises i.e. control group post-treatment results were less signification with p-value of 0.040 for anxiety, 0.014 for stress and 0.742 for depression. It is evident that Progressive relaxation exercises are more effective in improving mental health among university students. It is concluded that progressive relaxation exercises are more effective than aerobic exercises in improving mental health of university students. Key words: Mental Health, Depression, Stress, Anxiety, Progressive relaxation exercises, Aerobic exercises

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https://doi.org/10.31032/IJBPAS/2019/8.9.4790