The Effect of Warm Foot Bath on the Consciousness Level of Patients With Head Trauma

Abstract

Background Head trauma can cause decreased consciousness level and reduced ability to respond to the environment, leading to impaired cognitive, perceptual and sensory functions in people. One of the techniques that can help improve the brain function is warm bath. Objective The aim of this study was to determine the effect of warm foot bath on the level of consciousness in patients with head trauma. Methods This is a clinical trial using control group conducted on 50 patients with head trauma having Glasgow Coma Scale (GCS) score of 5-12 admitted to the intensive care unit of Shahid Rajaee Hospital in Qazvin, Iran from June to December 2017. They were selected using a convenience sampling method and randomly assigned into two groups of intervention and control. Intervention included a warm foot bath for 7 days, once a day for 15 minutes, and their GCS score was recorded before, one hour and three hours after the intervention. Data were analyzed using repeated measures ANOVA, chi-square, t-test, and descriptive statistics (mean and standard deviation). Findings The mean consciousness level of subjects in the intervention group was significantly higher than in the control group after warm foot bath (P<0.05). Three hours after warm foot bath, the mean consciousness level was 9.32± 1.86 in the intervention group and 8.44±2.48 in the control group which was significantly different (P=0.005). Conclusion Warm foot bath can increase the level of consciousness in patients with head trauma.