The effect of therapeutic touch on sleep quality of in elderly people living in nursing home

Today, nurses have started to use therapies such as therapeutic touch, which is different from traditional methods, by treating the human with holistic approaches that include physical health as well as emotional, mental and spiritual well-being. Therapeutic Touch (TD) is a complementary and alternative medicine method in which the energy in the environment is used with a certain intention and compassion, proving its validity and enabling individuals to find their internal balance. This research is an experimental randomized controlled trial to investigate the effect of therapeutic touch on sleep quality in the elderly living in nursing homes. The research was carried out at Nursing Home for the Elderly Care and Rehabilitation Center, in İzmir between 19 June 2017 and 13 October 2017. Two hundred forty four in the 65-89 age range, created research universe. The sample of the study is composed of 25 elderly people. Ten of the elderly included in the study were in therapeutic touch, 8 in mimic therapeutic touch, and 7 in control group. Elderly subjects were administered the Standardized Mini Mental Examination (SMME) and the elderly with normal cognitive functions were included in the study. The Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI) was used to determine sleep quality of the elderly and those with poor sleep quality were included in the study. The Epworth Sleepiness Scale (ESS) was used and the elderly with sleep apnea were identified and these elderly were excluded from the study. To collect the data; "Elderly Presentation Form (EPF)", "Standardized Mini Mental Examination (SMME)", "Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI)", "Epworth Sleepiness Scale (ESS)", "State Anxiety Scale (SAS)", "3 day version of PSQI (PSQI-3 days)", "International Physical Activity Questionnaire (IPAQ)" Daily Sleep Registration Form (DSRF) "is used. Informed consent was obtained from the elderly who agreed to participate in the research with the "Informed Volunteer Forms". Therapeutic Touch (TT), Mimic Therapeutic Touch (MTT) and Control (C) groups were established by using simple randomization method by taking age and gender into control and agreeing to the limitations of the study and agreeing to participate in the study. The elderly were followed for 4 consecutive days. Each day between 18: 00-20: 00 TT for the elderly in the TT group, mimic TT for 10 minutes in the MTD group. No attempt was made to control the elderly in the control group, the DSRF were checked at the same time each day, and the elderly in the control group were separated as well as the elderly in the other groups. Analysis of the data obtained from the study was performed in the Statistical Package for Social Science (SPSS) 20.0 package program. TT, MTT, and the control group, descriptive properties, number-percentage distributions and the homogenity test were examined with chi-square. All groups were analyzed by Kruskal-Wallis test for distribution of total scores according to SAS, IPAQ, ESS, SMMS, PSQI and doze numbers. The distribution of PUKI-3 and PSQI-3 component scores of all groups was analyzed by Wilcoxon test. Distribution of PSQI-3 score variance, distribution of subjective sleep quality component score of MTT group and distribution of daytime dysfunction score of TT group were statistically significant (p <0.05). In all groups, the difference between the PUKI-3 and PUKI-3 component score averages was found by performing a one-way ANOVA. The distribution of PUKI-3 and PUKI-3 component scores in all groups was not statistically significant (p> 0.05). Distribution of PUKI-3 and PUKI-3 component point average differences in all groups was examined by Kruskal-Wallis test. As a result of the analysis, the difference between the PUKI-3 and PUKI-3 component score averages in all groups was not statistically significant (p> 0.05). Sleep is influenced by many factors such as age, sex, chronic diseases, environmental factors, caffeine consumption. The sleep quality of the elderly living in the nursing home affects many factors such as these. It is thought that even the interaction with the elderly influences sleep quality positively. Since healing has also occurred in the control group, the result of the TD group healing is definitely not due to TD.