Effectiveness of warm water foot bath on fatigue among chronic renal failure patients undergoing hemodialysis in hospitals of Sikkim

Abstract

Background: The prevalence of fatigue among hemodialysis patients varies from 60 to 97%, which affects the patient’s quality of life. Thus, this study aimed to assess the effectiveness of warm water foot bath on fatigue among chronic renal failure patients undergoing hemodialysis. Materials and methods: The current research utilized a quasi-experimental time-series design and included 60 individuals with chronic renal failure receiving hemodialysis treatment. The participants were recruited using purposive sampling and were divided equally into an experimental group and a control group. Prior to the intervention, the Piper Fatigue Scale-12 was utilized to measure fatigue. The experimental group received three successive footbaths with warm water at temperatures ranging from 100 to 110°F for 15 minutes each time. The same fatigue scale was used to conduct post-intervention evaluation 30 minutes after each session. Results: One-way ANOVA was used to assess significant difference between the means of two groups which revealed that the significance values were 0.112, 0.812 and 0.643 during first, second and third session respectively whereas during the post-test, that there is a significant difference in fatigue level during the first {F =8.866, p=0.004}, second {F= 15.268, p=0.000} and third session {F= 21.147, p=0.000} concluding that post-test fatigue levels varied significantly across the different sessions. Conclusion: The warm water foot bath is an easy and inexpensive way to address fatigue among patients with chronic renal failure receiving hemodialysis.