The Effect of Foot Reflexology in Intensive Care Nurses

The Effect of Foot Reflexology on Stress, Fatigue and Low Back Pain in Intensive Care Nurses

This study was planned as a randomized controlled experimental research design to examine the effect of foot reflexology applied to nurses working in the intensive care unit on stress, fatigue and low back pain.

Study Overview

• Status: Completed
• Conditions: Pain; Fatigue; Stress; Nurse
• Intervention / Treatment: Behavioral: massage

Detailed Description

The universe of the research consisted of a total of 90 nurses working in a university and a public hospital in a city. Among the nurses, those who meet the criteria for inclusion in the study will form the sample. Assignment to the intervention and control group will be determined in the computer environment using a simple randomization method (www.randomizer.org/). The number of samples was determined using power analysis. It was decided to recruit a total of 42 nurses, 21 for each group.

• Study Type: Interventional
• Enrollment (Actual): 42
• Phase: Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

Study Locations

• Turkey
  • Kars, Turkey, 36000
    • Ayşe Gül Parlak

Participation Criteria

Eligibility Criteria

• Ages Eligible for Study: 18 years and older (Adult, Older Adult)
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers: No

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

• -Intensive care unit nurse
• Those aged 18 to 65 years
• Working in intensive care for at least 6 months
• Back pain for at least 3 months
• Not pregnant, non-breastfeeding
• Having a regular menstrual cycle
• Vascular disease and foot fracture, wound, scar, skin damage etc. no situation
• Volunteered to participate in the research
• Not using antidepressants, sleeping pills, etc.

Exclusion Criteria:

• Working in intensive care for less than 6 months
• No chronic low back pain
• Pregnant, lactating
• Do not have a regular menstrual cycle
• Vascular disease and foot fracture, wound, scar, skin damage etc. situation found
• Using antidepressants, sleeping pills, etc.

Study Plan

How is the study designed?

Design Details

• Primary Purpose: Supportive Care
• Allocation: Randomized
• Interventional Model: Parallel Assignment
• Masking: None (Open Label)

Number of Arms

2

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm	Intervention / Treatment
Experimental: Intervention group (reflexology group); The group in which reflexology massage (foot massage) was applied once a week for 20 minutes (10 minutes on each foot) for a total of 4 weeks, and the pain scale and fatigue and stress level were measured once a week at the beginning of the study and at the end of the study 4 weeks later.	Behavioral: massage; reflexology foot massage
No Intervention: Control group; Pain scale once a week for 4 weeks without any application, and fatigue and stress level at the beginning of the study and at the end of the study after 4 weeks were measured in the group.

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
pain severity	measurement of nurses' low back pain severity score A Visual Analogue Scale (VAS) is one of the pain rating scales. VAS pain score is evaluated as "painless" (score=0) and "worst pain" (score=10). score <3 mild pain, 3-6 mild-to-moderate pain, and >6 moderate-to-severe pain	pre test
fatique	The fatigue severity scale There are 9 questions in the scale and each question consists of 7 points. An increase in the scale score indicates an increase in the level of fatigue. The scale determines the fatigue status of individuals in the last 1 month. Questions are scored as I totally disagree (1)- I totally agree. If the average score is 5 and above, it is considered as "fatigue".	pre test
stress	Perceived Stress Scale ; There are 14 items in the scale, which was developed as a five-point Likert-type rating scale. The scale consists of "never (0), almost never" (1), "sometimes" (2), "often" (3) "very often" (4). The lowest and highest scores a participant can obtain from this scale are 0 and 56, respectively.	pre test

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
pain severity	measurement of nurses' low back pain severity score A Visual Analogue Scale (VAS) is one of the pain rating scales. VAS pain score is evaluated as "painless" (score=0) and "worst pain" (score=10). score <3 mild pain, 3-6 mild-to-moderate pain, and >6 moderate-to-severe pain	post test(at the end of the 4th week)
fatique	The fatigue severity scale There are 9 questions in the scale and each question consists of 7 points. An increase in the scale score indicates an increase in the level of fatigue. The scale determines the fatigue status of individuals in the last 1 month. Questions are scored as I totally disagree (1)- I totally agree. If the average score is 5 and above, it is considered as "fatigue".	post test (at the end of the 4th week)
stress	Perceived Stress Scale ; There are 14 items in the scale, which was developed as a five-point Likert-type rating scale. The scale consists of "never (0), almost never" (1), "sometimes" (2), "often" (3) "very often" (4). The lowest and highest scores a participant can obtain from this scale are 0 and 56, respectively.	post test(at the end of the 4th week)

Collaborators and Investigators

• Sponsor: Kafkas University
• Investigators: Principal Investigator: Ayşe Gül Parlak, PhD, Kafkas University

Study record dates

Study Major Dates

• Study Start (Actual): November 1, 2022
• Primary Completion (Actual): April 30, 2023
• Study Completion (Actual): April 30, 2023

Study Registration Dates

• First Submitted: January 2, 2023
• First Submitted That Met QC Criteria: January 9, 2023
• First Posted (Actual): January 11, 2023

Study Record Updates

• Last Update Posted (Actual): October 17, 2023
• Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria: October 13, 2023
• Last Verified: October 1, 2023

More Information

Terms related to this study

• Additional Relevant MeSH Terms: Fatigue
• Other Study ID Numbers: kafkasU-80576354

Plan for Individual participant data (IPD)

• Plan to Share Individual Participant Data (IPD)?: NO

Drug and device information, study documents

• Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated drug product: No
• Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated device product: No