Summary: | Objectives: Fatigue is one of the most common complications of cancer and its related medications including chemotherapy. The present study aimed to investigate the effects of reflexology on the fatigue in cancer patients receiving chemotherapy. Materials and Methods: The current randomized clinical trial was conducted on 80 cancer patients under chemotherapy in Tohid Medical Center affiliated with Kurdistan University of Medical Sciences in Iran during 2016-2017. The patients were randomly assigned to control and intervention groups in the form of quadruple blocks using the StatsDirect software. The data were collected by a personal information questionnaire and the fatigue severity scale (FSS). After questionnaire administration and collection, foot sole reflexology was performed on the intervention group during four consecutive days each session lasting for 30 minutes. Then, the severity of fatigue was once more measured in the patients of both groups. Results: Based on the results, the mean and standard deviation in the investigated patients, before and after the intervention was 5.538±1.041 and 4.486±1.040 in the intervention group, respectively, indicating that the difference was significant (P=0.000). In addition, after the reflexology was performed, the mean and standard deviation of the intervention and control groups were 4.486±1.040 and 5.180±1.450, respectively, which demonstrated a significant difference between the two groups in terms of fatigue (P=0.016). Conclusions: In general, based on the results, reflexology was found to have a positive effect on fatigue in cancer patients who underwent chemotherapy.
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