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. 2024 Aug 9;10(16):e36065.
doi: 10.1016/j.heliyon.2024.e36065. eCollection 2024 Aug 30.

Comfort evaluation and physiological effects/autonomic nervous system response of inflatable deep pressure vest in reducing anxiety

Mohamad Izzur Maula  1   2   3 , Muhammad Imam Ammarullah  1   2   4 , Hanifa Nur Fadhila  2   5 , Ilham Yustar Afif  2   6 , Hardian Hardian  7 , Jamari Jamari  1   2 , Tri Indah Winarni  2   5   8
Affiliations

Comfort evaluation and physiological effects/autonomic nervous system response of inflatable deep pressure vest in reducing anxiety

Mohamad Izzur Maula et al. Heliyon. .

Abstract

Background: Deep pressure therapy treats anxiety by triggering physiological responses and promoting calmness. Moreover, measuring user comfort can improve product quality.

Objective: To investigate the physiological effects and subjective comfort level of inflatable deep pressure vests to enhance their calming effect.

Methods: Experimental research was conducted with a one-group pretest-posttest design for physiological effects using pulse oximetry for peripheral pulse rate and a one-shot case study for three subscale parameters that help evaluate comfort (pressure, touch, and mobility) using the Numerical Rating Scale (NRS). Deep pressure intervention using the Inflatable Vest was performed for three sessions, each lasting 5 min.

Results: This study was conducted with 46 participants (24 males, 22 females) aged 17-20 (19.52 ± 0.78). Although pulse rate consistently decreased in all sessions, session 1 showed a significant decrease (p = 0.014*, d = 0.379), whereas sessions 2 (p = 0.274, d = 0.163) and 3 (p = 0.597, d = 0.078) demonstrated non-significant decreases with small effect sizes. The pressure comfort subscale showed that 87.0 %, 4.3 %, and 8.7 % of the participants, and the touch comfort subscale test revealed that 82.6 %, 8.7 %, and 73.9 % of the participants rated it as comfortable, very comfortable, and less comfortable, respectively. The mobility subscale test showed that 73.9 % of the participants rated no limitation, 17.4 % rated somewhat limited, and only 8.7 % rated limitation. Decreased pulse rate and pressure comfort were significantly positively correlated (r = 0.282**, p < 0.01), whereas touch pressure and mobility were not (r = 0.160, p > 0.05; and r = 0.121, p > 0.05, respectively). Decreased pulse rate was also positively correlated with the overall score for the three aspects (r = 0.201*, p < 0.05).

Conclusions: A comfortable inflatable deep pressure vest provides a physiologically calming effect for therapeutic modalities.

Keywords: Anxiety; Comfort test; Deep pressure therapy; Pulse rate.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Phases, activities, and tools in the present study.
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
Changes in pretest-posttest peripheral pulse rate.
Fig. 3
Fig. 3
Comfort measurements.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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