The effect of hand massage on some symptoms in patients withRheumatoid arthritis

The research was conducted as a experimental in order to efficiency of hand massage to clinic sypmtoms in Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) patients, it consisted of 30 experimental group and 30 control group are included between November 2009 and May 2011. Patient İnformation Form, within this form, the Visual Analog Scale and Health Assessment Questionnaire was used to capture data. The end of the resarch these are concluded; the %86,7 of experimental group has tired problem, the 15. day of reseacrh %53.3 of these group say that they were feeling tired. Before the research %63,3 of these group has sleeping promlem, 15. day of resarch %53,3 has this problem. Before hand massage, experimental group pain point average was found 7,6±2,2, and after hand massage, it?s pain point falls down to 6,4±2.0 there is no significant difference between experimental and control groups (p=0,202). Before hand massage, experimental group HAQ point average was found 2,1±0,6, control group HAQ point average was 1,7±0,6 and after hand massage, the experimental group HAQ point falls down to 1,7±0,5 and control group HAQ point to 1,5±0,6, there is a significant difference between experimental and control groups in terms of time (p=0,000).The end of the research showed that, hand massage was enhancing the functional state and which have a positive effect on the control to pain, fatigue and sleeping problems. Hand massage is one of the complementary methods to reduce the symptoms can be used with pharmacologic methods.Key words: Rheumatoid arthritis, pain, fatigue, sleeping problems, functional state, hand massage