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The effects of foot reflexology on nausea, vomiting, and fatigue of breast cancer patients undergoing chemotherapy
In a study of 34 breast cancer patients undergoing chemotherapy, from the Department of Nursing at Inje University in Pusan, Korea, there was a significant decrease in nausea and vomiting in the experimental group receiving four 40-minute phases, or sessions, of foot reflexology. It is suggested that reflexology be used as a nursing intervention in the case of breast cancer patients undergoing chemotherapy.
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PMID: 15778569 [PubMed – indexed for MEDLINE]
Source of abstract below: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15778569
[Article in Korean]
Source:
Department of Nursing, Inje University, Pusan, Korea. jhyang@inje.ac.kr
PURPOSE:
The purpose of this study was to identify the effects of foot reflexology on nausea, vomiting and fatigue in breast cancer patients undergoing chemotherapy.
METHOD:
The research was a quasi-experimental study using a non-equivalent pre-post design and was conducted from Jan. 26, to Mar. 20, 2004. The subjects consisted of 34 patients with 18 in the experimental group and 16 in control group. A pretest and 2 posttests were conducted to measure nausea, vomiting and fatigue. For the experimental group, foot reflexology, which was consisted of 4 phases for 40 minutes, was given by a researcher and 4 research assistants. The collected data were analyzed by repeated measures ANOVA using the SPSS WIN 10.0 program.
RESULTS:
There was a statistically significant decrease in nausea, and vomiting in the experimental group compared to the control group over two different times. In addition, there was a statistically significant decrease in fatigue in the experimental group compared to the control group over two different times.
CONCLUSION:
Foot reflexology was effective on nausea, vomiting and fatigue in breast cancer patients receiving chemotherapy in this study. Therefore, foot reflexology can be usefully utilized as a nursing intervention in the field of cancer nursing for breast cancer patients receiving chemotherapy.
- PMID: 15778569 [PubMed – indexed for MEDLINE]
- Source: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15778569
