The Effect of Swedish Massage and Lavender Aromatherapy on Adolescent Anxiety
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.25047/ijhitech.v4i2.7725Keywords:
adolescent, anxiety, lavender aromatherapy, swedish massage, womenAbstract
Anxiety is a psychological problem frequently experienced by adolescents and can impact learning concentration, academic achievement, quality of life, and mental health. Swedish massage and lavender aromatherapy are complementary non-pharmacological approaches that provide tactile and olfactory relaxation stimuli, respectively. A quasi-experimental pretest–posttest control group design involved 44 female adolescents (22 intervention, 22 control) selected through purposive sampling. The intervention consisted of approximately 15-minute sessions, twice weekly for two weeks (four sessions). The control group received standard care. Anxiety was measured using the Hamilton Anxiety Rating Scale (HARS). Within-group differences were analyzed using Wilcoxon and Mann–Whitney U tests. The intervention group’s mean HARS score decreased from 23.59 ± 9.80 to 12.27 ± 5.20 (reduction of 11.32 points), while the control group’s score decreased from 21.50 ± 4.84 to 21.27 ± 4.29 (reduction of 0.23 points). The within-group reduction was significant in the intervention group (p < 0.001), but not in the control group (p = 0.197). The between-group comparison was also significant (U = 39.00; Z = −4.777; p < 0.001). The combined intervention was associated with lower anxiety scores among the female adolescents studied during the two-week period. Since the interventions were not evaluated separately and the study used a small, non-randomized sample without long-term follow-up, the findings should not be generalized beyond the study population or period.
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