The Effects Of Self-massage On Sleep Quality And Cognitive Functions Of The Elderly

Objectives(1) To analyze the relationship between sleep quality and cognitive functions of the elderly.(2) To explore effectiveness of self-massage on sleep quality and cognitive functions of the elderly.MethodsThe study was a field experimental study. In this study,82 old people in a community of Changsha city were sampled and randomly assigned to two groups:the control group and the self-massage group. The control group only received rout education on sleeping, and based on the control group, the self-massage group received self-massage. All the training lasted six months. At baseline, the end of 3rd month, and 6th month after training, all participants'data were measured by four instruments including Pittsburgh Quality Index (PSQI), Epworth Sleepiness Scale (ESS), Mini-mental state examination (MMSE), Wechsler memory scale Chinese version (WMS-C). A database was established using SPSS 17.0 for statistical analysis. Statistical methods included:statistical description, t test, X2 test, kruskal-wallis H test, repeated measures analysis of variance. Level of significance of this study was set at 0.05.Result(1) Baseline results showed that the mean scores of PSQI, ESS were 8.89±3.94,4.70±3.80, respectively. The mean score of MMSE was 23.77±3.64, ranged from 14 to 30, the mean scores of recite number, picture recalls, word association, comprehensive memory were 9.26±1.80,8.08±3.62,2.20±1.33,5.13±3.01, respectively.(2) The correlation analysis showed that MMSE had negative correlation with PSQI and ESS (P<0.05). The stepwise regression analysis showed that age, education level, PSQI, and ESS were the influential factors of cognitive functions of the elderly (P<0.01)(3) The result of repeated measure ANOVA revealed that intervention and interaction between time and intervention had significant individual effect on the scores of PSQI, ESS, and MMSE, as well as those of recite number, the picture recalls, comprehensive memory, and word association. Except for recite number, significant time effects were also found among the above variables.Conclusions:(1) The influential factors of cognitive functions include age, education level, PSQI, ESS. Age, PSQI, ESS were correlated with cognitve functions negatively, education level was correlated with cognitive functions positively.(2) Self-massage could significantly improve sleep quality and cognitve functions of the elderly.