The effect of reflexology on quality of life, fatigue, nausea, vomiting and retching in mastectomy patients under chemotherapy: A double blinded Randomised clinical trial

Abstract

Abstract Introduction: Chemotherapy is known as an essential method in the treatment of cancer and despite its benefits, it often causes side effects, the most important of which are nausea, vomiting and fatigue, which reduce the performance and quality of life of patients. Due to the ease of use of non-pharmacological interventions such as reflexology and the absence of side effects, this method can be used to improve the quality of life and reduce the effects of chemotherapy in women with breast cancer in hospitals and other treatment centers. Objective: The aim of this study was to evaluate the effect of reflexology on quality of life, fatigue, nausea, vomiting and retching in women underwent mastectomy undergoing chemotherapy. Methods: This study is a double-blind randomized controlled clinical trial on women underwent mastectomy undergoing chemotherapy referred to Shahid Madani Medical Center. Among women with 18-60 years’ old who referred to the mentioned centers for the first session of chemotherapy, 132 patients were selected by convenience sampling method. Patients with inclusion criteria were divided into three groups of intervention (reflexology) and control and plasbo (general massage) by random block method with the size of three and six blocks with an allocation ratio of 1: 1: 1. In the first session of chemotherapy, personal and social characteristics questionnaire, quality of life questionnaires (QLQ C30-QLQ BR23), fatigue (BFI) and Rhodes Nausea and Vomiting Scale (INVR) (completed after the first session of chemotherapy and 12 hours later by phone call with the patient) with the help of the researcher. The intervention started from the second session of chemotherapy and was performed for 7 sessions every 14 days once in the intervention groups as reflexology and in the plasbo groups as general massage. The control group did not receive any intervention. INVR and BFI questionnaires were completed twice (after chemotherapy and 12 hours later) by the researcher. The quality of life questionnaire was completed once after the first session of chemotherapy and the second time in the eighth session after the intervention by the researcher. Results: At the beginning of the intervention, there was no statistically significant difference in the mean score of quality of life, fatigue and total score of nausea and vomiting (P >0.05). The results showed that the mean scores of quality of life and fatigue dimensions in the intervention group were significantly different from the control and plasbo groups after the intervention (P <0.05). The mean scores of nausea, vomiting and retching between the three groups during the eight sessions with baseline effect control based on analysis of variance were not statistically significant (P >0.05), but at 12 hours after chemotherapy, during eight sessions were statistically significant in the second, seventh and eighth sessions (P <0.05) but there were no significant differences in the other sessions (P >0.05). Conclusion: The results of this study showed that reflexology has positive and effective effects on improving the overall quality of life, reducing symptoms and fatigue, but has no effect on nausea and vomiting due to chemotherapy. However, due to the lack of research papers, more studies are needed.