The Effectiveness of Acupressure in the Quality of Sleep of the Head and Neck Cancer Patients Receiving Chemotherapy: The Application of Rogers' Theory

Purpose:

The purpose of this study is to examine the effectiveness of acupressure in regards to the Quality of Sleep of Head and Neck Cancer Patients receiving Chemotherapy. Purposive sampling is used in this study of 58 Head and Neck Cancer Patients (PSQI>5) receiving Chemotherapy from the Head and Neck Cancer units of a medical center in Southern Taiwan.

Methods:

An experimental design is used for this study. By controlling the effect of hypnotics, age, and gender (male), subjects are randomly assigned to either an experimental group or a control group. The experimental group has 25 subjects, and the control group has 33 subjects. The total sample size is 58 subjects. The experimental group received two weeks of acupressure protocol. The sessions were conducted five days per week, two times per day with one session in the morning and one in the evening. Each session lasted 12 minutes. The control group did not receive the acupressure protocol. Five series of data were collected from the fifty eight subjects during the one month experiment.Research instruments include the Demographic Inventory of Patients, Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index, and Richards-Campbell Sleep Questionnaire. Statistical analysis of all collected data were performed with descriptive analysis, Chi-Square, two-sample t-test, two-way ANOVA with repeated measures, and three-way ANOVA with repeated measures.

Results:

 Results: Acupressure significantly improved the quality of daily sleep, as well as the sleep quality in the previous one month of Head and Neck cancer patients receiving chemotherapy. Subjective sleep quality, sleep latency, sleep duration, habitual sleep efficiency, sleep disturbance were all significantly improved.

Conclusion:

Based on the research results and a thorough literature review, we suggest that four week long acupressure research study be conducted. Continuous intervention shall result in better treatment effectiveness. This study serves as a reference for medical practitioners to help improve sleep quality of Head and Neck cancer patients receiving chemotherapy.