Effect of reflexology application on anxiety

This study aims to identify the reflexology's effect on anxiety and is based on a pretest - posttest control group. Research environment consists of the students of Ege University Nursing Faculty. In the initial phase of the study, anxiety levels of all the students were detected. In the second phase, of those students with a high level of anxiety, 30 constituted the case group and another 30 comprised the control group, who were selected by simple random sampling method. "Introductory Information Form, Beck Depression Inventory, Beck Anxiety Inventory, The State-Trait Anxiety Inventory and Anxiety Perception Scale" were used in collecting data. The required written permissions were obtained from the Ethics Committee, the Institution and students taking part in the study in order to carry out the research. In the application phase of the research, firstly students in the case and control group were provided with trainings on reflexology. The case group had reflexology applied for six sessions in total. After the application of reflexology, "Beck Anxiety Inventory" and "The State-Trait Anxiety Inventory" were applied simultaneously for the students in both case and control groups as a final test and a month later as a monitoring test. Additionally, the case group was also applied on the basis of the anxiety perception scale before and after going through each reflexology session. In analysing the data before and after each reflexology session, descriptive statistics, Paired-Samples T Test, Independent Samples T Test, One Way ANOVA Test, Pearson Correlation, and Repeated Measure ANOVA Test were used. Reviewing the research results; after the application of reflexology, a significant statistical decrease was found in intergroup Beck Anxiety Inventory average points of both the control and case group students (p=0.00). As for the intergroup State-Trait Anxiety Inventory average points, a significant difference was detected in the case group (p=0.00), however, no such change was monitored in the control group (p=0.83). An outstanding statistical difference was also found between the anxiety perception average points of the students in the case group that had reflexology applied (p=0.00). Consequently, it is determined that six session reflexology application has positive effect on anxiety level. Key Words: Reflexology, anxiety, psychiatric nursing.