Is reflexology as effective as aromatherapy massage for symptom relief in an adult outpatient oncology population?
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Jeannie Dyer1, Karen Thomas, Cathy Sandsund
1Therapies Department, The Royal Marsden NHS Foundation Trust, London SW3 6JJ, UK. jeannie.dyer@rmh.nhs.uk
Aim:
To test whether reflexology was inferior to aromatherapy massage for ameliorating self-selected problems or concerns.
Design:
Non-blinded, randomised study with a 1:1 allocation. Adult outpatients recruited from a UK cancer centre, randomised by the minimisation method to either four aromatherapy massage or four reflexology sessions.
Outcome Measures:
MYCaW scores at baseline and completion; VAS (relaxation) pre and post-sessions.
Analysis:
Unpaired t-test for the primary outcome; analysis of variance tests for repeated measures for VAS (relaxation); descriptive statistics (means and 95% confidence intervals) and content analysis for patient comments.
Results:
115 subjects (58 aromatherapy massage, 57 reflexology) recruited. Reflexology was found to be no less effective than aromatherapy massage for MYCaW first concerns (p = 0.046). There was no statistical difference between groups for MYCaW second concerns or overall well-being scores, proportions of patients gaining clinical benefit, VAS scores over time (p = 0.489) or between groups (p = 0.408) or in the written responses.
