Abstract
Purpose: The purpose of this study was the comparative effects on fatigue and sleep of aroma hand massage vs. hand massage among hospice patients in a hospital. Methods: The design of this study was a nonequivalent comparison group pretest-posttest design. This study was performed from May to December 2012 in a hospice ward. A total of 30 hospice patients in a hospice ward participated in the study (17 in an aroma massage group and 13 in a massage group). The Piper Fatigue Scale was used to measure the fatigue level. The quantity of sleep was measured using sleep hours and the quality of sleep using the Verran & Snyder-Halpern sleep scale (1987). The aroma massage group used 1:1 lavender and bergamot diluted to 1% with 100 ml jojoba carrier oil. The massage group used carrier oil without an essential oil. Each treatment was performed for 10 minutes prior to the subject’s sleeping time, once a day and for 5 days. Data were analyzed using t-test, x2-test, Fisher’s exact test and the repeated measures ANOVA with the SPSS program. Results: The increase in the fatigue and decrease in the sleep quantity were lower in the aroma hand massage compared to the only hand massage but they were not statistically significant. Conclusion: The quality of sleeping improved in the aroma hand massage group compared to the control group even though it was not significant. For the further studies, assessing and respecting the patient’s aroma preference were important considerations when providing aromatherapy and the appropriation of using 1% essential oil to dilute needs to be tested for the hospice patients in the further studies
Highlights
Hospice care provides supportive care to terminally ill clients and the focus of care is on giving comfort to the patient and improving the quality of life rather than cure [1]
The findings of this study showed even though there was no significant difference in the effects of aroma hand massage with only hand massage on fatigue, the increase in the fatigue level in the aroma hand massage group was lower than the only hand massage group
While previous studies reported a significant improvement on fatigue by providing the aromatherapy for 5 to 10 minutes over 12 times for over 2 weeks, the current study offered treatment for only 5 times in total because of the hospice patients’ health condition
Summary
Hospice care provides supportive care to terminally ill clients and the focus of care is on giving comfort to the patient and improving the quality of life rather than cure [1]. The number of hospice clients in hospice wards has increased because hospice care including end of life care in the past is given by families or relatives in the clients’ home in South Korea, but is being largely provided in hospice wards in hospitals [3]. Hospice clients experience diverse health problems including physical and emotional problems such as pain, anger, anxiety, helplessness and depression, and they suffer from the monetary burden of medical expenses [3]. For these reasons, hospice clients show physical and emotional symptoms and the symptoms are usually related to severe fatigue and a low quality of sleeping [4]. Fatigue in cancer patients is related to weight change, ADL status, pain, immobility, sleeping [6] [7]
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