THERAPEUTIC TOUCH AS AN INTERVENTION TO REDUCE ANXIETY IN ELDERLY HOSPITALIZED PATIENTS.
Contributors: University of Texas at Austin.
Published: 1985
Number of pages: 130
Subjects: Health Sciences, Nursing.
Description: The effect of therapeutic touch on the anxiety level of 60 volunteer male and female elderly subjects between the ages of 65 and 93, hospitalized in a large private hospital in the Midwest, was examined. The dependent variable, state anxiety, was defined as a transitory emotional state of persons that varies in intensity over time and was measured by the Y-2 form of the Self-Evaluation Questionnaire, developed by Spielberger. Subjects were administered this tool pre- and postintervention. Twenty subjects were randomly assigned to each of three groups. Each subject received a 5 minute intervention of therapeutic touch or one of two simulated conditions. In the first simulated condition, the nurse mimicked an assessment and held her open hands over the solar plexus with no intent to transfer energy. In the second simulated condition, another nurse held her closed hands over the shoulder of the subject with no intent to transfer energy. There were no statistically significant differences among the groups in regard to demographic characteristics such as ethnicity, age, sex, numbers of previous hospitalizations, religious preference, diagnosis, and practice of meditation. Results of the analysis of covariance statistical test, using pretest scores as the covariate, failed to reject the null hypothesis of no difference among the three groups. The mean scores of the posttest suggested a slight increase in anxiety in all three groups. Implications for nursing include the need to extend the time of the intervention and/or to use multiple treatments, and to modify procedures in order to encourage participation of the elderly. Future research should concentrate on testing the energy exchange and the assumption that hospitalization increases anxiety in elderly subjects.
Notes: Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 47-02, Section: B, page: 0573.

Thesis (PH.D.)--THE UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS AT AUSTIN, 1985.

School code: 0227.