A study to assess the effectiveness of foot massage on reduction of cancer pain among palliative care patients

Abstract

Pain is an unpalatable sensory and emotional in contact with actual or potential tissue damage. Approximately 70% to 90% of people with cancer suffer with severe pain while undergoing treatment. Cancer pain can result due to poor blood circulation, a bone fracture that occurs due to metastasis, infection or inflammation in the affected part and side effects from cancer treatments. Hence the present study aimed to assess the effectiveness of foot massage on reduction of cancer pain among palliative care patients. The quasi-experimental design was employed with40 patients who met the inclusion criteria were selected by non-probability convenience sampling technique. The researcher collected the demographic variables and done pretest to assess the pain score by using a numerical pain scale for both the experimental group and the control group. For the experimental group, foot massage was given twice a day for five days. Control group received routine care. At the end of the fifth-day, post-test was done for both the experimental group and the control group. The data analysis was done by using descriptive and inferential statistics. The calculated ‘t’ value is reveals that the experimental group seems to be highly significant than the control group. So foot massage is effective among cancer patients on the reduction of pain.