Effects of sleep hygiene education and reflexology on sleep quality and fatigue in patients receiving chemotherapy

Aim: This study was conducted planned to determine the effects of sleep hygiene education and reflexology on sleep quality and fatigue in patients receiving chemotherapy. Material and Method: This study was conducted as an experimental study with pretest-posttest control group. The universe of the stusy consisted of 726 adult patients who were treated in the daily chemotherapy unit of Diyarbakir Dicle University Oncology Hospital and who lived in the city center. The sample of the study consisted of 167 patients, this number was determined by power analysis. 84 patients in the experimental group and 83 patients in the control group who were selected by simple random sampling method, and who got score of 5 or higher from the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index, were included in the study. The data were collected using Introductory Information Form, Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index and Fatigue Severity Scale as data collection tools between November 2016 and June 2017. The researcher gave three sessions of sleep hygiene education repeatedly to the patients in the experimental group every two weeks, and a total 16 sessions of reflexology applied for 2 sessions each week. No intervention was not applied to the patients in the control group. Results: The means of the scores of the postl test of The Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index were 5.5±2.1 for the experimental group and 13±2.4 for the control group. The means of the scores of the final test of the Fatigue Severity Scale were 22.6±1.9 for the experimental group and 41.0±4.2 for the control group. The difference between the means of the scores of groups was statistically significant (p=0.000). Conclusion: The patients receiving chemotherapy had a lower mean scores from the Pitssburgh Sleep Quality Index and Fatigue Severity Scale while they had increased sleep quality and decreased fatigue after sleep hygiene education and reflexology. The use of sleep hygiene education and reflexology application by nurses may be suggested to cope with insomnia and fatigue problems in the patients receiving chemotherapy Keyswords: Nurse, Chemotherapy, Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index, Reflexology, Sleep Hygiene Education, Fatigue Severity Scale