A Comparison of the Effect of Nursing Care Using Footbath, Foot Massage and Foot Massage Combined with Footbath for Relaxation

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to investigate the relaxation response of subjects to footbath, foot massage, and foot massage combined with footbath compared with that of control.Ten subjects (mean age 72.0, SD 2.2), physiological data (heart rate and foot skin temperature) were continuously measured and subjective comfort data were obtained before care, immediately after care, and 120m after care. The comparisons were performed with one way ANOVA, Tukey's test and the Friedman test.Immediately after care, foot massage resulted in a significant decrease in heart rate in comparison with control (p<0.01). As for skin temperature immediately after care, all forms of care produced significant increases in comparison with control (footbath: p<0.05; foot massage and foot massage combined with footbath: p<0.01). Foot temperature following foot massage combined with footbath was significantly higher than that of control up to 30m after care. The results suggest that these forms of care generate the relaxation response as shown by the decrease in heart rate and the increase in foot skin temperature. Foot massage combined with footbath provided the greatest subjective comfort.Although there were some differences in the relaxation response achieved with these three forms of care, our findings suggest that all of them, contribute to psychological and physiological well-being by generating and retaining warmth in the feet and legs, and promoting the onset of sleep.