THE EFFECTS OF CIRCADIAN RHYTHM-BASED PROGRESSIVE RELAXATION EXERCISES IN HEMODIALYSIS PATIENTS

The Morningness-Eveningness Questionnaire

The Morningness-Eveningness Questionnaire (MEQ) consists of 19 items. Fourteen of these items are multiple-choice questions, while the remaining five items include time-scale questions in which participants are asked to mark the time point most appropriate for them. Participants receive a score based on their responses to each of the 19 items, and the total MEQ score is obtained by summing these scores. Lower MEQ scores are associated with the evening chronotype, whereas higher scores are associated with the morning chronotype. Finally, individuals are classified into five different chronotype groups based on their MEQ scores: definitely evening type, moderately evening type, neither type, moderately morning type, and definitely morning type. This questionnaire will be used to determine the morningness-eveningness chronotypes of the patients.

Dialysis Symptom Index

The scale includes 30 symptoms describing physical or emotional conditions. Patients respond to the symptoms they have experienced during the past week as yes or no, where "no" indicates that the symptom was not experienced and "yes" indicates that the symptom was experienced. If the response is "yes," the degree to which the symptom affects the patient is evaluated using a five-point Likert-type scale, ranging from 1 (not at all) to 5 (very much). After summing the scores obtained, the total scale score is calculated. The total score ranges between 0 and 150, with scores closer to 150 indicating a greater impact of symptoms. This scale will be used to assess the dialysis symptoms and their severity in patients.

Hemodialysis Comfort Scale-Version II

This scale is a 5-point Likert-type instrument consisting of 26 items and six subdimensions: physical relief, physical ease, psychospiritual relief, psychospiritual transcendence, environmental transcendence, and sociocultural relief. As the scale score increases, the level of comfort increases, whereas lower scores indicate a lower level of comfort. The total scale score ranges from 26 to 130. This scale will be used to evaluate the comfort levels of the patients.

Pittsburg Sleep Quality Index

The index, which evaluates sleep patterns over the past month, consists of 19 items and 7 components. Eighteen of the items included in the index scoring are grouped into seven component scores. These components assess subjective sleep quality, sleep latency, sleep duration, habitual sleep efficiency, sleep disturbances, use of sleep medication, and daytime dysfunction. Each item is scored on a 0-3 scale, and the sum of the seven component scores yields the total Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI) score. The total PSQI score ranges from 0 to 21, obtained by summing the subscale scores. A total PSQI score greater than five indicates poor sleep quality, with 89.6% sensitivity and 86.5% specificity, and suggests severe impairment in at least two areas or moderate impairment in three areas mentioned above. This scale will be used to evaluate the sleep quality of the patients.