The Effect of Inhaling the Aroma of Rosemary Essential Oil on the Pre-Hospital Emergency Personnel Stress and Anxiety: A Quasi-Experimental Study

background: the prevalence of stress and anxiety in pre-hospital emergency personnel is high. objectives: the present study was conducted to investigate the effect of inhaling the aroma of rosemary essential oil on stress and anxiety of emergency medical personnel. methods: in this quasi-experimental study, 8 pre-hospital emergency stations affiliated to birjand university of medical sciences in birjand city were randomly selected. then, 4 stations were randomly allocated to the intervention group and 4 stations were assigned to the control group. in the next step, among personnel of each station about 8-10 participants were selected according to the inclusion criteria (39 participants in each group). afterwards, these participants completed demographic and dass-42 questionnaires (stress and anxiety subscales). badges with 25% rosemary essential oil in the intervention group and badges impregnated with refined sweet almond oil were used in the control group for two hours in 3 shifts per week for one month. the anxiety and stress subscales of the dass-42 questionnaire were completed by the participants one hour as well as 30 days after the last intervention in each group. in this study, chi-square, mann-whitney and friedman tests were used. results: the statistical analysis showed that the mean stress and anxiety scores in the two groups did not have significant differences before intervention (p > 0.05). one hour after the last intervention, statistical analysis showed that the mean of stress scores in the intervention group was significantly reduced compared to the control group (p < 0.05). one month after the intervention, no significant changes occurred in the mean scores of stress in intervention group (p > 0.05). in the case of anxiety, one hour after the intervention the mean scores in the intervention group were significantly decreased compared to the control group (p < 0.05). one months after the intervention, no significant changes occurred in the mean scores of anxiety in intervention group (p > 0.05). conclusions: aromatherapy with rosemary essential oil can have positive effects in reducing stress and anxiety in pre-hospital emergency personne