The purpose of this study was to explore the effects of foot reflex therapy on heath status in institutional elders using a quasi-experimental design. Pre and post-experiment measures were compared.
Data were collected for a month from July 12 to August 16, 2002. Sixteen institutional elders were selected as the experimental group, and 15 as the control group.
Foot reflex therapy was performed to the feet of elders in the experimental group for 40 minutes twice a week for a month, a total of 8 times. During therapy, the elders in the control group enjoyed relaxing in their rooms.
The effects of foot reflexology on physical health such as systolic/diastolic pressure, pulse rate, respiration rate, muscle endurance, agility, psychological health such as perception of health status, perception of pain, sleep pattern and spiritual health such as quality of life of institutionalized elders were evaluated.
The data were analyzed using SPSS + PC 10.1 for window with frequencies, means and standard deviations, Chi-square test, and t-test.
The results are as follows. There was no significant differences between the two groups for weight, age and height at pro-treatment (p<.05). This result indicates that the two groups were similar in the sample distribution.
The effects of the foot reflex therapy on physiological responses were a significant decrease in respiration rate after therapy, on muscloskeletal function, a significant increase in muscle endurance after therapy and on kinesthetic perception responses, a significant increase in agility after therapy.
The effects of the foot reflex therapy to psychological health were a more perception of health status after foot therapy and a decreased perception of pain after therapy, and improved sleep pattern after therapy.
The effects of the foot reflex therapy showed that quality of life improved after therapy.
In conclusion, the study provided support that foot reflex therapy for elders promotes positive physiological responses, psychological health and quality of life. From this result, it can be concluded that foot reflex therapy is effective as a intervention for health promotion in elders.
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