Foot Massage Intervention on Chemotherapy Drugs Induced Pain in Children with Cancer

Abstract

Introduction: Child health continues to be the priority health issue, child hood cancer is not yet a major health issue is not yet a major area of focus.1 Complementary and Alternative Medicine (CAM), significantly, has the potential to affect the lives of many children. Complementary therapies such as reflexology and foot massage could be introduced in healthcare settings as an ideal non-pharmacological method of reducing stress and anxiety and managing difficult symptoms such as pain and nausea. Objective of the study are to .evaluate the efficacy of foot massage intervention on impact of chemotherapy pain among control and experimental group children and comparison of pain scores among control and experimental group children. Methods: True experimental research design was used to assess the efficacy of foot massage intervention. Matched randomization was used to select the samples (same diagnosis in both groups). The samples were children who have diagnosed and admitted for chemotherapy treatment in 8 bedded pediatric oncology unit at Amrita Institute of Medical Sciences, Kochi. The children who met the inclusion criteria, age between 6-18 years and selected drugs which cause moderate or severe pain. National cancer institute common toxicity criteria (NCICT) version 3.0 was used to assess the pain and its severity in mild, moderate, severe and life threatening grades. Pain assessment done before and after administration of chemotherapy both in control n=70 and experimental n=70 children. Before administering the chemotherapy, after administering chemotherapy first 24 hours and end of 48 hours for three assessment. (10am, 2pm, 8pm) Foot massage interventions in 6 sessions (3 sessions per day 25 minutes per session) were administered. Results and discussion: For first 24 hours the chemotherapy drugs induced pain among the control group 2(2.8%) subjects did not have any specific pain, 9(12.8%) subjects had mild pain, not interfering with function and ADL. 51(72.8%) subjects experienced pain in a moderate grade. 8(11%) of the subjects had severe pain interfered with ADL in a severe grade. In experimental group, 15(21%) did not have any specific pain, 55(78%) subjects had mild pain not interfering with function and ADL. For next 48 hours among control group, 3(4.2%) did not have a specific pain, 7(10%) subjects had mild pain not interfering with function and ADL. 54(77%) subjects experienced pain of a moderate grade. 6(8.5%) of the subjects had severe pain interfered with ADL in a severe grade. In experimental group, 24(34%) subjects did not have any specific pain. 46(65%) subjects have mild pain not interfering with normal function and ADL. Conclusion; Children have pain experience after receiving chemotherapy within 48 hours the level of severity of the pain adverse effect was compared by a chi-square test for the experimental group and control group. The ‘t’ value 16.22 the mean difference in the pain score of experimental group and control group greater then table value 3.46. On comparison the result is statistically significant at P<0.001.