Published Paper Details:

OBJECTIVES: The aim of the study is to assess the effect of hand and foot massage therapy on the pain and quality of sleep among breast cancer patients. BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY: Cancer is a global problem and it is a leading cause of death worldwide. Pain and quality of sleep are affected among the cancer patients. Foot massage is a complimentary therapy that has great potential for use by nurse in multidisciplinary pain management programme. Foot massage acts like an analgesic and inhibits those pain signals from being transmitted to the brain. It is the manipulation of superficial and deeper layers of muscle and connective tissue to enhance function and in the healing process and promote relaxation and well being. DESIGN: Control and experimental groups were taken and manipulation was given to the experimental group. Two groups pretest - posttest (experimental and control) design were used in this study. RESEARCH METHODOLOGY: The quantitative evaluative approach, randomized control trail design was used. The samples of 200 cancer patients were selected probability simple random technique sampling technique and the samples were divided into experimental and control group based on matching criteria. The data was collected by using two tools a) demographic variables tools, b) pain scale, c) european organization for the research and pittsburg quality of sleep index. The hand and foot massage was administered for the patients. The data was analyzed by using descriptive and inferential statistics. FINDINGS OF THE STUDY: The findings were in experimental group, pretest mean score was 8.31, post test mean score was 4.16, in pretest maximum 83% of subjects had very severe level of pain, in posttest 63% of subjects had mild pain. Whereas in control group, pretest mean score was 8.22, post test mean score was 6.55, in pretest 86% of subjects had very severe level of pain, and in post test 56% of subjects had moderate pain. The "t" value in between pretest and post pain scores of experimental group is 29.43, that shows hand and foot massage therapy is effective in reducing pain among breast cancer patients.