the effect of massage therapy on the physiologic index of the patiants hospitalized at different intensive care units of shahid beheshti university of medical sciences

the effect of massage therapy on the physiologic index of the patiants hospitalized at different intensive care units of shahid beheshti university of medical sciences       zolriasatain f [1] *, bahraini s [2] , hariri gh [3] , khoda karim s [4]     received: 4 dec , 2012 accepted: 18 feb , 2013       abstract:   background & aims : massage therapy is one of the appropriate methods of reducing tension and anxiety. on the other hand, there are fundamental physiologic differences between men and women considering low attention to massage therapy. goal of this investigation is to compare the effect of massage therapy on physiologic indexes of male and female patients hospitalized in intensive care units of shahid beheshti hospitals   materials & methods : in this study foot massage was executed on 40 patients (20 male and 20 female) within 5 minutes (each foot 2.5 minutes). physiologic index ( blood pressure, pulsation, respiration, temperature and oxygen saturation percentage) are evaluated before, immediately after, and 5 minutes after foot massage.   result : study finding exhibited (except for respiration intermittence) that foot massage meaningfully affects physiologic indexes during the time. data analysis showed that effect at this intervention on blood pressure (systolic and diastolic), temperature and oxygen saturation percentage was greater for men but pulsation reduction behavior was similar for men and women.   conclusion: based on results obtained in study it can be concluded that foot massage meaningfully affects positively on blood pressure, pulsation, oxygen saturation percentage and temperature of both men and women under investigation, but in most cases the amount of effect on men and women differ during the time.   keywords: foot massage, sex, physiologic indexes, intensive care unite     address: shaheed beheshti university of medicine sciences and health services, nursing and midwifery department, tel: (+98 21 ) 88202511   email : [email protected]   [1] faculty of nursing, shaheed beheshti university of medicine sciences and health services. (corresponding author) *  [2] ms of nursing training, young researcher club, medical branch, islamic azad university, tehran, iran  [3] ms of nursing management, faculty member of fasa university of medical sciences, fasa, iran  [4] phd student of statistics, paramedical school, shahid beheshti university of medical sciences, tehran, iran