J Korean Oncol Nurs.  2011 Aug;11(2):127-135.

Meta-Analysis of the Effectiveness on Foot-Reflexo-Massage for Cancer Patients

• Kim MY
• Oh PJ

Abstract

PURPOSE
This study was performed to analyze the characteristics and effect sizes of intervention studies on foot-reflexo-massage applied to cancer patients.
METHODS
For meta-analysis, a total of 159 studies were retrieved from search engines such as RISS, nanet, KISS, richis and KoreaMed. 16 studies published from 1990 to 2010 were selected based on the inclusion criteria. The data were analyzed with the RevMan 5.0 program of Cochrane library.
RESULTS
1) The mean score of 1 implement time on foot-reflexo-massage was 25.62 minutes, the average number of days was 4.12 days, and the total number of average intervention frequency was 4.25 times. 2) Intervention studies on foot-reflexo-massage included 9 studies on anxiety (56.3%), 7 for pain (43.8%), 5 for BP/pulse (31.3%), 5 for fatigue (31.3%), 3 for nausea/vomiting (18.8%), 3 for sleep satisfaction (18.8%), and 2 for depression (12.5%). 3) The effect sizes of the intervention studies that showed higher effect size were in order, anxiety (d=-1.76), fatigue (d=-1.43), depression (d=-1.03), nausea and vomiting (d=-0.83), pain (d=-0.77), pulse rate (d=-0.61), blood pressure (d=-0.55), and sleep satisfaction (d=0.43).
CONCLUSION
This study suggests that foot-reflexo-massage can increase sleep satisfaction, whereas decreasing blood pressure, pulse rate, anxiety, fatigue, depression, nausea, vomiting and pain.

Keyword

Neoplasms; Meta-Analysis; Intervention Studies; Foot; Massage

MeSH Terms

Anxiety
Blood Pressure
Depression
Fatigue
Foot
Heart Rate
Humans
Clinical Trial
Massage
Nausea
Search Engine
Vomiting

Figure

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  Fig. 1 Flow of included studies through database searching.

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  Fig. 2 Forest plot of effect size and 95% CI by foot reflexology on pain.

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  Fig. 3 Forest plot of effect size and 95% CI by foot reflexology on anxiety (scale: STAI).

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  Fig. 4 Forest plot of effect size and 95% CI by foot reflexology on nausea & vomiting.

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  Fig. 5 Forest plot of effect size and 95% CI by foot reflexology on fatigue (scale: RPFS).

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