Purpose: Assessment of short-term practice of relaxation therapy on autonomic and cardiovascular functions in first-year medical students.
Design: Case-control, interventional study.
Setting: Medical college laboratory.
Subjects: Sixty-seven medical students, divided into two groups: study group (n = 35) and control group (n = 32).
Intervention: Study group subjects practiced relaxation therapy (shavasana with a soothing background music) daily 1 hour for 6 weeks. Control group did not practice relaxation techniques.
Measures: Cardiovascular parameters and spectral indices of heart rate variability (HRV) were recorded before and after the 6-week practice of relaxation therapy.
Analysis: The data between the groups and the data before and after practice of relaxation techniques were analyzed by one-way analysis of variance and Student t-test. In the study group, prediction of low-frequency to high-frequency ratio (LF-HF) of HRV, the marker of sympathovagal balance, to blood pressure (BP) status was assessed by logistic regression.
Results: In the study group, there was significant reduction in heart rate (p = .0001), systolic (p = .0010) and diastolic (p = .0021) pressure, and rate pressure product (p < .0001), and improvement in HRV indices, following 6 weeks of relaxation therapy. As determined by regression model, prediction of LF-HF to BP status was more significant (odds ratio, 2.7; p = .009) after practice of relaxation therapy. There was no significant alteration in these parameters in control subjects.
Conclusion: Short-term practice of relaxation therapy can improve autonomic balance and promote cardiovascular health of medical students. Sympathovagal balance is directly linked to BP status in these individuals.
Keywords: Autonomic Functions; Blood Pressure Status; Cardiovascular Risk; Health focus: stress management; Heart Rate Variability; Manuscript format: research; Outcome measure: morbidity; Prevention Research; Relaxation Therapy; Research purpose: intervention testing; Setting: clinical/health care; Strategy: built environment; Study design: quasi-experimental; Sympathovagal Balance; Target population age: youth; Target population circumstances: all education levels, all income levels, all races/ethnicities.