Stress perception among meditators who are affected by tsunami

Abstract

Stress is a day to day experience. When measuring stress, two components can be identified; stress perception and stress response. The stress perception is measured by administering questionnaires. The objective of the study was to compare the perceived stress among meditators affected by the recent tsunami with those not affected. The Sinhala translation of PSS was administered to meditators in two meditation centers in Galle three months after the December 26th tsunami. The data were analyzed to find out the mean difference in the perceived Stress Score (SS) between meditators who were affected and those who were not affected by the tsunami. There were 26 subjects affected by tsunami and 13 not affected. The SS (17.7±4.9) of affected subjects was higher than those unaffected (13.1±6.8). Stress perception in tsunami affected mediators after three months of tsunami was significantly higher than those not affected by tsunami (p=0.029).