“EFFECT OF FOOTBATH ON QUALITY OF SLEEP AMONG THE ELDERLY PATIENTS ADMITTED IN HOSPITAL.”

Abstract

Background: A man’s life is normally divided into five stages namely: infancy, childhood, adolescence, adulthood
and old age. In each of these stages an individual’s finds himself in different situations and faces different
problems. Old age is viewed as an unavoidable, undesirable and problem ridden phase of life. Problems of aging
usually appear after the age of 65 years. Sleep is a physiological mechanism of regaining energy and recovering
from fatigue, and it has an important role in people`s health. Decreasing core body temperature before and during
sleep is associated with dilation in peripheral blood vessels, and it may drive heat from core body to peripheral
blood vessels. Therefore, a footbath with warm water can increase blood and peripheral body temperature
without increasing or decreasing core body temperature and it can increase sleep quality and ease sleep onset.
Aims: To assess the effect of footbath on quality of sleep among the elderly patients admitted in hospital Method:
A pre-experimental research design was carried out for this study.50, Patients were selected using purposive
sampling technique based on inclusion and exclusion criteria. A modified Pittsburgh sleep quality index tool was
used for this study to assess sleep quality in elderly patients. Descriptive and inferential statistics such as mean,
standard deviation, frequency, T- value, chi-square test was used to analyses the data. Results: The finding of the
study concludes that majority of patient that is 84% belongs to moderate sleep quality among elderly patients
admitted in Dhiraj hospital, Vadodara. The effectiveness regarding the footbath therapy on quality of sleep among
elderly patients showed that mean of pre-test is 12.46 and post-test is 4.26, standard deviation of pre-test is 1.919
and post-test is 1.135, and t value is 28.038 at degree of freedom 49 which was statistically significant at p>0.05
level. The association between quality of sleep with occupational socio demographic variable was 4.26 that is
significant association chi square at p<0.05. this revealed that the footbath therapy is effective in improving the
quality of sleep among the elderly patients admitted in hospital.