The Effect of Reflexology Applied to Patients with Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease on Dyspnea and Fatigue

The purpose of this study was to determine the effect of reflexology on reducing dyspnea and fatigue in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD).The study was conducted as a pretest-posttest experimental design. The population of the study consisted of 60 patients (30 in experimental group and 30 in control group). Patient Description Form, Baseline Dyspnea Index (BDI) and Visual Analogue Scale-Fatigue (VAS-F) were used to collect the data.The difference between pretest-posttest dyspnea and fatigue mean scores of patients in the experimental group was statistically significant (p.01). The difference between pretest-posttest dyspnea and fatigue mean scores of patients in the control group was statistically insignificant (p.05).It was determined that the reflexology reduced dyspnea and fatigue in patients with COPD.Complementary methods such as reflexology should be used with pharmacological methods to reduce dyspnea and fatigue of COPD patients.