The purpose of this study was to identify the effects of foot reflexology on nausea, vomiting and fatigue in breast cancer patients undergoing chemotherapy.

The research was a quasi-experimental study using a non-equivalent pre-post design and was conducted from Jan. 26, to Mar. 20, 2004. The subjects consisted of 34 patients with 18 in the experimental group and 16 in control group. A pretest and 2 posttests were conducted to measure nausea, vomiting and fatigue. For the experimental group, foot reflexology, which was consisted of 4 phases for 40 minutes, was given by a researcher and 4 research assistants. The collected data were analyzed by repeated measures ANOVA using the SPSS WIN 10.0 program.

There was a statistically significant decrease in nausea, and vomiting in the experimental group compared to the control group over two different times. In addition, there was a statistically significant decrease in fatigue in the experimental group compared to the control group over two different times.

Foot reflexology was effective on nausea, vomiting and fatigue in breast cancer patients receiving chemotherapy in this study. Therefore, foot reflexology can be usefully utilized as a nursing intervention in the field of cancer nursing for breast cancer patients receiving chemotherapy.

This study was conducted to evaluate the effects of foot care education program using foot-reflexo-massage in diabetic patients.

A convenience sample of non-equivalent control group time series design was used. It provided foot care education to diabetic patients through small book for both group. For the experimental group, foot-reflexo-massage was taught by a researcher and research assistants. Analysis was done by Repeated Measured ANOVA.

There was significant increase in foot care knowledge, self care behavior, between the experimental group and the control group over three different times. There was significant in skin temperature and pulse of foot over three different times and interaction by groups or over time, but there was no significant difference between groups. There was no significant difference in blood flow volume and capillary filling time over three different times, between groups, but there was interaction by groups or over time. But there was significant difference in discrimination in change of dosalis pedis artery blood flow.

Findings indicate that this study may contribute to develop nursing intervention for foot care of diabetic patients.

To identify the effects of foot reflexology massage on fatigue, stress and depression of postpartum women.

A nonequivalent control group pre-post design was used. A total of 70 women in a postpartum care center were recruited and were assigned to the experimental group (35) or control group (35). Foot reflexology massage was provided to the experimental group once a day for three days. Data were collected before and after the intervention program which was carried out from December, 2013 to February, 2014. Data were analyzed using Chi-square test, Fisher's exact test, and t-test.

The level of fatigue in the experimental group was significantly lower than the control group (t= - 2.74, p =.008). The level of cortisol in the urine of women in the experimental group was significantly lower than the control group (t= - 2.19, p =.032). The level of depression in the experimental group was significantly lower than the control group (t= - 3.00, p =.004).

The results show that the foot reflexology massage is an effective nursing intervention to relieve fatigue, stress, and depression for postpartum women.

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of foot reflexology on fatigue, sleep and pain.

A systematic review and meta-analysis were conducted. Electronic database and manual searches were conducted on all published studies reporting the effects of foot reflexology on fatigue, sleep, and pain. Forty four studies were eligible including 15 studies associated with fatigue, 18 with sleep, and 11 with pain. The effects of foot reflexology were analyzed using Comprehensive Meta-Analysis Version 2.0. The homogeneity and the fail-safe N were calculated. Moreover, a funnel plot was used to assess publication bias.

The effects on fatigue, sleep, and pain were not homogeneous and ranged from 0.63 to 5.29, 0.01 to 3.22, and 0.43 to 2.67, respectively. The weighted averages for fatigue, sleep, and pain were 1.43, 1.19, and 1.35, respectively. No publication bias was detected as evaluated by fail-safe N. Foot reflexology had a larger effect on fatigue and sleep and a smaller effect on pain.

This meta-analysis indicates that foot reflexology is a useful nursing intervention to relieve fatigue and to promote sleep. Further studies are needed to evaluate the effects of foot reflexology on outcome variables other than fatigue, sleep and pain.

The purpose of the study was to identify the prevalence, risk factors and clinical meanings of geriatric foot problems and to suggest implications for the future.

One hundred eighty nine elderly aged 60 and over from institution as well as community were investigated for their foot conditions by means of a questionnaire including general characteristics, self care capacity, risk factors, foot problem checklist, X-ray, podoscopy and foot scan. Descriptive statistics and χ²-test was performed as appropriate utilizing SPSS version 14. Less than .05 of p-value was adopted as statistical significance level.

All subjects had at least one kind of foot problem and the most prevalent ones were nail problems, foot deformities in order. Prevalence of foot pain and edema was relatively low.

Foot problem in elderly is prevalent and geriatric foot is expected to emerge as one of the most important problems in the geriatric field. Therefore strategies to deal with geriatric foot should be developed and practiced for better quality of life in later life.

This study was aimed to identify the effects of a self-foot reflexology massage on depression, stress responses and functions of the immune system of middle-aged women.

This study was a one group pretest-posttest experimental design and the data was collected from August 1^st, 2004 to May 31^st, 2005. The subjects consisted of 46 middle-aged women (40 - 64 years) who were recruited from the Community Health Center in Busan city. Subjects were not treated for 4 weeks, subsequently they were trained in self foot reflexology massage for 2 weeks, and then they did their own daily for 6weeks (2 days at the research center, 5 days at home).The outcome variables were measured 4 times, at baseline, pre training, after training, and after the intervention. The collected data was analyzed using repeated measure ANOVA by the SPSS/WIN program.

There was a statistically significant difference in depression, perceived stress, systolic blood pressure, natural-killer cells and Ig G. However, there was not a statistically significant difference in dyastolic blood pressure, pulse or serum cortisol.

These results suggest that a self-foot reflexology massage could be utilized as an effective nursing intervention to reduce depression and stress responses, and to strengthen immune systems in middle-aged women.

This study was to examine the effects of foot reflexion massage on sleep disturbance, depression disorder, and the physiological index of the elderly in nursing homes.

The research design was a non-equivalent control group pretest-posttest quasi-experimental study. The subjects in this study were 50 elderly people who resided in two different nursing homes in the same region. An experimental group and a control group were organized with 25 subjects respectively, and foot reflexion massage was provided for 12 sessions, 30 minutes per session. The selected dependent variables were sleep disturbance, depression disorder, and physiological indices(blood plasma serotonin, serum cortisol), which were all measured before and after foot reflexion massage was offered. Data analysis included χ²-test, t-test, paired t-test, and ANCOVA, using the SPSS program package.

1. The experimental group improved sleep quality more than the control group. 2. The experimental group had less depression disorder than the control group. 3. The experimental group had higher serotonin levels than the control group.

It's necessary to give foot reflexion massage as a successful nursing intervention to elderly who undergo a change in sleep, and suffer from a depression disorder due to a deterioration in sleep.