A Comparison of the Effectiveness of Acceptance and Commitment Therapy and Sleep Hygiene Education on Sleep Quality and Physiological Parameters in Older Adults

Objectives: Due to the high prevalence of insomnia and physiological parameter’s problems in elderly, this study aims to compare the effect of acceptance and commitment therapy, sleep hygiene education and the combination of both approaches on sleep quality and physiological parameters such as blood pressure, pulse rate and oxygen saturation in blood in elderly. Methods and Material: The present study is a quasi-experimental one with pre-test, post-test and follow up design alongside a control group. The statistical population of this study is the elder members of Jahandedhgan center in Shiraz in 2019. Using convenience sampling and following the inclusion and exclusion criteria, 80 subjects were selected and randomly placed in four groups, three experimental and one control group. The experimental group two and three went under four-week intervention of sleep hygiene and experimental group one and three went under four-week intervention of acceptance and commitment therapy treatment and the control group just waited. The subjects were assessed with Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index, Mercury Barometer and Pulse Oximeter. For data analysis, statistical package of SPSS 23 and Mixed two-way variance and multivariate analysis of covariance were used in this study. Results: The comparison between the experimental group and control with the mean age of 70.41±4/5    showed that the mean score of sleep quality, systole blood pressure and oxygen saturation in the experimental group of sleep hygiene, commitment and acceptance therapy and the combination of both approaches after the intervention were significant at P< 0.001. the highest effect of sleep quality was related to combination therapy with score of 0.83 then sleep hygiene education 0.67 and the acceptance and commitment treatment 0.60 respectively. Conclusion: Insomnia treatment following systole blood pressure and oxygen saturation using any of the treatment approaches, acceptance and commitment, sleep hygiene education and especially the combination of both approaches is useful and causes physical and psychological health of the elderly. Training and applying this treatment with the priority on combination treatment for health care in field of elderly is recommended.