Acute Effects of Mind-Body Exercise Program on Stress in Female Office-Computer Workers

Abstract

Background and Objective: Stress in office work is a cause of various health problems, both in physiological and psychological. Mind-body exercise is an exercise program that integrating both of mindfulness meditation and body exercise together which is known as a stress reduction program. However, there had limited study about mind-body exercise on stress in Thailand, Hence, this study was aimed to study effects of mind-body exercise on stress among female office-computer workers.

Method: This study was an experimental study. Thirty-four female office-computer workers aged between 20-35 years old, were divided into two groups: the mind-body exercise group and the control group (n=17 for each group).The stress was immediately assessed before and after exercise programs by using the State-trait anxiety inventory (Thai version).

Results: The results showed that mind-body exercise group has significantly achieved in decreasing stress more than the control group (p<0.05). The average mean of the different STAI score of the mind-body exercise group were 11.29 ± 5.71 and of the control group were 5.58 ± 5.71, respectively.

Conclusions: Therefore, the mind-body exercise program can effectively help to reducing stress in female office-computer workers. So, this program could be another choice for treating patients who suffer from the stress, as well.