The effect of foot reflexology applied on diabetic patients with neuropathic pain on the patients' quality of life, hope and pain levels

Aim: This study was conducted to determine the effect of foot reflexology applied to diabetic patients with neuropathic pain on quality of life, hope and pain levels. Material and Method: This research, which was designed as a randomized controlled and experimental study, was completed between January 2022 and December 2022. The data of the study consisted of 102 diabetic patients with neuropathic pain, 51 of whom were interventions and 51 were controls. As data collection tools; Patient Information Form, Herth Hope Scale (HHI), Four-Question Neuropathic Pain Questionnaire (DN4Q), Neuropathic Pain Impact on Quality of Life Questionnaire (NePIQoL), and Visual Analog Scale (VAS) were used. A total of 12 sessions of foot reflexology were applied to the patients in the intervention group, twice a week for six weeks. No intervention was performed on the patients in the control group. Results: In the pretest phase (before foot reflexology application), there was no significant difference between the intervention and control groups in terms of DN4Q and VAS scores, HHI and NePIQoL all sub-dimensions and total scores (p>0.05). However, DN4Q, VAS and NePIQoL total and all sub-dimension scores in the intervention group in which foot reflexology was applied in the post-test stage (after foot reflexology application) showed a significant decrease compared to the control group without foot reflexology (p<0.05), and the HHI total and all sub-dimension scores in the control group. It was found that there was a significant increase compared to the group (p<0.05). Conclusion: It was determined that foot reflexology increased the quality of life and hope level of diabetic patients with neuropathic pain and decreased the level of pain.