Effect of Hand Reflexology in Ameliorating Anxiety, Pain, and Fatigue Among Patients Undergoing Coronary Angiography

Overview

Journal BMC Complement Med Ther

Publisher Biomed Central

Specialty Rehabilitation Medicine

Date 2023 Nov 24

PMID 38001461

Authors

Eman Abdeen Ali

Wafaa Hassan Ali Awad

Mahmoud Abdelwahab Khedr

Emad Abd El Gawad Ali Rabie

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

Background: Reflexology is a popular non-invasive complementary medicine technique to enhance anxiety, pain, and fatigue among patients undergoing coronary angiography.

Objective: This study aimed to investigate the effect of hand reflexology in ameliorating anxiety, pain, and fatigue among patients undergoing coronary angiography.

Methods: A quasi-experimental research design was used on 60 patients undergoing coronary angiography at Alexandria Main University Hospital's cardiology department (30 patients in each study and control group). Four tools were used to collect data: the socio-demographic and clinical data assessment sheet, the visual analogue scale, the Rhoten fatigue scale, and the Beck anxiety inventory.

Results: Scores of moderate anxiety, intractable pain, and severe fatigue among the study group significantly decreased after 2 h and three days of applying hand reflexology.

Conclusion: The current study findings showed that hand reflexology is a simple, non-invasive nursing intervention that is effective and useful for managing pain, fatigue, and anxiety in patients undergoing coronary angiography as it resulted in a significant reduction in the severity of pain, fatigue, and anxiety after coronary angiography in the study group compared to the control group.

Trial Registration: The study was registered in the clinical trial.gov database (Clinicaltrials.gov NCT05887362 , 23/05/2023).

Citing Articles

Effect of foot reflexology on pain, anxiety, and physiological indices in leukemia patients undergoing bone marrow aspiration: A randomized clinical trial study.

Mehri M, Golitaleb M, Safdari A, Madadi S, Rafiei F, Shahbazi H Contemp Clin Trials Commun. 2025; 44:101427.

PMID: 39881886 PMC: 11773030. DOI: 10.1016/j.conctc.2025.101427.

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