Efficacy of a footbath for post-partum fatigue in South Korea: A quasi-experimental study

Comparing the Effects of Warm Footbath and Foot Reflexology on the Fatigue of Patients Undergoing Radiotherapy: A Randomized Clinical Trial

BACKGROUND AND AIM

Fatigue is a common side effect of radiotherapy. While warm footbath and foot reflexology can both reduce fatigue, it is still unclear which method is more effective in reducing fatigue. This study aimed to compare the effects of warm footbath and foot reflexology on the fatigue of patients undergoing radiotherapy.

METHOD

A randomized clinical trial study was conducted on 62 patients undergoing radiotherapy. Eligible patients were randomly assigned to the 2 groups. Patients in the footbath group immersed their feet in 41°C water for 20 minutes every night for 2 weeks starting from the seventh day of radiotherapy. Patients in the reflexology group received 20 minutes of foot reflexology every night for 2 weeks starting from the seventh day of radiotherapy. Fatigue was measured by the Multidimensional Fatigue Inventory (MFI) once on the seventh day of radiotherapy and 3 more times on days 7, 14, and 28 after the start of the intervention. Data were analyzed by SPSS20 and descriptive/inferential statistics.

RESULTS

The total MFI score of both groups declined significantly over time (P < .001). The reflexology group indicated a significant reduction from 90.9 ± 3.2 in the pre-test to 56.0 ± 3.7 on the 28th day in, while the footbath group indicated it from 90 ± 2.6 in the pre-test to 71.4 ± 2.8 on the 28th day.

CONCLUSION

Our results showed that foot reflexology and warm footbath reduced the fatigue of patients undergoing radiotherapy. However, foot reflexology was more effective in reducing the fatigue of patients undergoing radiotherapy than warm footbath. It is recommended that simple and low cost non-pharmacological interventions such as foot reflexology to decrease of side effect of radiotherapy among cancer patients should be widely performed.Trial registration: Iranian Registry of Clinical Trials (IRCT20190625044009N1).

Assessing the effects of exercise on post-partum fatigue symptoms: A systematic review and meta-analysis

Background

The level of activity in women who have given birth is very low despite the great benefits of exercise on their physical and mental health. There are some contradictories between the results of several preliminary studies on the effects of exercise on post-partum fatigue reduction. Therefore, the aim of this study was to assess the effects of exercise on decreasing postpartum fatigue in general and, specifically, in Iran using meta-analysis.

Methods

In this study, the articles printed in international and national centres of SID, MagIran, IranMedex, IranDoc, Cochrane, Embase, ScienceDirect, Scopus, PubMed and Web of Science (WoS), were used to find the studies electronically published up to 2021. The studies' heterogeneity was examined using the I² index, and subsequently, a random-effects model was applied. Data analysis was performed within the Comprehensive Meta-Analysis software (version 2).

Results

Finally, nine articles met the inclusion criteria in this systematic and meta-analysis review. The included samples were 456 patients in the intervention group and 446 in the control group. The mean score of fatigue after the intervention was 8.1 ± 1.1 lower than before intervention in the experimental group, and this difference was statistically significant (p ≤ 0.001).

Conclusion

The results of this study indicate that exercise reduces postpartum fatigue, which can be used for counseling and treatment by gynecologists. Reduce postpartum problems in women and increase the quality of life after childbirth.