The Efficacy of Hot Footbath in Hospitalized COVID-19 Patients: An Open-Label Randomized Controlled Trial

Abstract

COVID-19 spread rapidly around the world from the end of 2019. Hot footbath is a simple ancient technique, which has been used to alleviate many disorders. We aimed to investigate the effect of hot footbath in hospitalized COVID-19 patients. This open-label randomized controlled trial was conducted in Iran with allocation ratio of 1:1, with final sample size of 35 patients in each group. The intervention group received hot footbath (immersion of feet into the hot water at 42 °C, 10 cm above the ankles for 20 minutes, and then kept warm for 5 minutes) once a day for a week, in addition to the conventional therapy. The control group received only the conventional therapy; the primary outcomes evaluated were fever, respiratory rate, cough, fatigue, and myalgia; whereas admission rate, ICU admission, and mortality were assessed as the secondary outcomes. Except for cough intensity, cough frequency and fatigue (p value < 0.05), no significant differences were observed between the two groups in the primary and secondary outcomes. No adverse events were reported. Hot footbath can be used as a non-invasive, highly acceptable, and complementary technique to alleviate COVID-19 patients without any needs to expensive or special equipment; nevertheless, further studies with larger sample sizes are needed so as to accurately evaluate the effectiveness of hot footbath on clinical symptoms of COVID-19.