Dataset Information

Reflexology in oncological treatment - a systematic review.

ABSTRACT:

Background

As cancer and its therapy comes with a wide range of negative effects, people look for options to mitigate these effects. Reflexology is among the options of complementary medicine.

Method

In March 2022 a systematic search was conducted searching five electronic databases (Embase, Cochrane, PsychInfo, CINAHL and Medline) to find studies concerning the use, effectiveness and potential harm of reflexology on cancer patients.

Results

From all 821 search results, 29 publications concerning 26 studies with 2465 patients were included in this systematic review. The patients treated with reflexology were mainly diagnosed with breast, lung, gastrointestinal and hematological cancer. Outcomes were mainly pain, quality of life, anxiety, depression, fatigue. The studies had moderate to low quality and reported heterogeneous results: Some studies reported significant improvements in above mentioned outcomes while other studies did not find any changes concerning these endpoints.

Conclusion

Due to the very heterogeneous results and methodical limitations of the included studies, a clear statement regarding the effectiveness of reflexology on cancer patients is not possible. The current evidence indicates that reflexology is superior to passive control groups for pain, quality of life and fatigue, however, more studies with comparable active control groups are needed.

SUBMITTER: Klaus M

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10782728 | biostudies-literature | 2024 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Publications

Reflexology in oncological treatment - a systematic review.

Klaus Moritz M Kutschan Sabine S Männle Heidrun H Hübner Jutta J Dörfler Jennifer J

BMC complementary medicine and therapies 20240111 1

<h4>Background</h4>As cancer and its therapy comes with a wide range of negative effects, people look for options to mitigate these effects. Reflexology is among the options of complementary medicine.<h4>Method</h4>In March 2022 a systematic search was conducted searching five electronic databases (Embase, Cochrane, PsychInfo, CINAHL and Medline) to find studies concerning the use, effectiveness and potential harm of reflexology on cancer patients.<h4>Results</h4>From all 821 search results, 29 ...[more]

PMID: 38212747

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Project description:BackgroundPremenstrual syndrome (PMS) refers to a set of somatic and psychological symptoms that occur cyclically in the luteal phase of a menstrual cycle. There is no report of final result of reflexology on PMS. Therefore, the present study aimed to determine the effect of reflexology on PMS through a systematic review and meta-analysis study.MethodThe present study was a systematic review and meta-analysis that was conducted by searching in 8 electronic databases including PubMed, EMBASE, Cochrane Library, Web of Science, ProQuest, Scopus, Google Scholar, and SID until December 28, 2018. In this regard, interventional studies, which examined the impact of reflexology on women with premenstrual syndrome, were included. These studies were published during 1993 to 2018. The Cochrane Collaboration's Risk of Bias Tool was used to assess the quality of studies. Meta-analysis was performed by the help of CMA 2 software.ResultsNine out of 407 studies finally remained after screening, and quantitative and quantitative analyses were performed on them. The total number of research samples was 475. The mean treatment time with reflexology was 40.55 min per session that was performed in 6 to 10 sessions of treatment in 66.67% of studies. According to the meta-analysis and based on the random effects model, the reflexology could decrease the severity of PMS in the intervention group compared to the control group (SMD = - 2.717, 95% CI: - 3.722 to - 1.712). Meta-regression results indicated that the duration of intervention sessions (β = - 0.1124, 95% CI - 0.142 to - 0.084, p < 0.001) had a significant impact on the severity of PMS. Reflexology could also significantly affect somatic (SMD = - 1.142, 95% CI: - 1.481 to - 0.803) and psychological (SMD = - 1.380, 95% CI: - 2.082 to - 0.677) symptoms arising from PMS.ConclusionIn general, results of the present study indicated that the reflexology could relieve PMS symptoms, so that overall scores, somatic and psychological symptoms of PMS decreased by applying the reflexology intervention. Furthermore, an increase in the length of reflexology time in each session increased its efficiency. Reflexology can be used as an effective intervention in a patient care program by nurses and its efficiency can be enhanced by increasing intervention time in each reflexology treatment session.

Project description:IntroductionDisrupted sleep and sleep-wake activity are frequently observed in cancer patients undergoing oncological treatment. These disruptions are often associated with aggravated symptom burden and diminished health-related quality of life that in turn may compromise treatment adherence and, thus, effectiveness. In addition, disrupted sleep has been linked to carcinogenic processes, which ultimately could result in worse prognostic outcomes.AimsOur aim was to systematically review and conduct a meta-analysis of studies examining the associations between sleep and sleep-wake activity and prognostic outcomes in cancer patients undergoing oncological treatment.MethodsA comprehensive systematic search of English language papers was undertaken in June 2020 using PubMed, The Cochrane Library, and CINAHL. Two reviewers independently screened 4,879 abstracts. A total of 26 papers were included in the narrative review. Thirteen papers reporting hazard ratios reflecting associations between a dichotomized predictor variable (sleep) and prognostic outcomes were subjected to meta-analysis.ResultsNineteen of the 26 eligible studies on a total of 7,092 cancer patients reported associations between poorer sleep and poorer response to treatment, shorter time to progression, and/or reduced overall survival, but were highly heterogeneous with respect to the sleep and outcome parameters investigated. Meta-analysis revealed statistically significant associations between poor self-reported sleep and reduced overall survival (HR = 1.33 [95% CI 1.09-1.62], k = 11), and shorter time to progression (HR = 1.40 [95% CI 1.23-1.59], k = 3) and between poor objectively assessed sleep and reduced overall survival (HR = 1.74 [95% CI 1.05-2.88], k = 4).ConclusionThe current findings indicate that disturbed sleep during treatment may be a relevant behavioral marker of poor cancer prognosis. The limited number of studies, the common use of single item sleep measures, and potential publication bias highlight the need for further high quality and longitudinal studies.

Dataset Information

Reflexology in oncological treatment - a systematic review.

Background

Method

Results

Conclusion

Publications

Reflexology in oncological treatment - a systematic review.

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