Investigation of the effect of therapeutic touch on sleep quality and fatigue inmenopausal women

This research was carried out to determine the effect of therapeutic touch on sleep quality and fatigue in menopausal women. This randomized controlled experimental study was conducted with 48 menopausal women who applied to Izmir Tepecik Training and Research Hospital Gynecological Oncology outpatient clinic between 15 December 2021 and 15 March 2022. The data of the study were collected with Personal Information Form, Pittsburg Sleep Quality Index and Piper Fatigue Severity Scale. In order to conduct the study, the approval of the Clinical Research Ethics Committee, written institutional permission and written permission from the participants were obtained. Evaluation of the data was carried out using IBM SPSS V25, statistical significance was accepted at the p<0.05 significance level. The median age of women was 48 [40-55] in the experimental group compared to 51 [40-58] in the placebo group. There was no difference between the groups in terms of socio-demographic and descriptive characteristics (p>0.05). When the first and last total score averages and medians of the Piper Fatigue Scale (PFS) and Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI) were compared in the groups, the group time interaction was found to be significant (p<0.001). While no statistically significant difference was found between the groups in the mean PFS final measurement (p=0.917), a significant difference was found between the groups in terms of the mean PFS final measurement scores in the in-group evaluations, in the experimental and placebo groups (p<0.001; p<0.001). In both groups, the mean of the last measurement of PFS was lower than the mean of the first measurement. A statistically significant difference was found between the mean PSQI last measurement between the groups (p=0.010). In intragroup comparisons, a significant difference was found when PSQI final measurement medians were compared in the experimental group (p<0.001) and the placebo group (p=0.001). In both groups, the PSQI final measurement median was lower than the first measurement median. As a result of this research, it was determined that therapeutic touch was effective in improving sleep quality in menopausal women, but did not affect fatigue.