THE EFFECT OF SAD TEXT ON BLOOD PRESSURE

Abstract

Objective: To determine experimentally whether reading sad text increases bloodpressure of individuals or not.

Methodology: This cross sectional study was performed at Health Care CenterTurkey. Adults who had referred to public health center were included in this studybetween 1st December 2014 to 28th February 2015. Data of blood pressuremeasurements and questionnaire were recorded. At first, subjects were takeninto a quiet room and had rest for five minutes in sitting position. Before readingsad text and blood pressure was measured on the right arm. Then a sad text of900 words was read by the volunteer and as soon as it was finished, bloodpressure was measured again. Data were analyzed with percentage, frequency,variance analysis, student's t-tests.

Results: About 45 adults were included in the study . Mean age of individuals was43.4±13.8 years and 55.6% of them were females and 35.6% hadhypertension. Average systolic blood pressure of first measurement was123.91±5.58 mm Hg, average diastolic blood pressure was 75.44±5.07 mmHg. There was no difference when diastolic blood pressure values werecompared before and after sad text reading for the subjects (p=.64). There wassignificantly difference when systolic blood pressure values were comparedbefore and after sad text reading for the subjects (p=.00).

Conclusion: After reading a sad text, systolic blood pressure of individualsincreased.