Results of Self-foot Massage in 15 Postures to Relieve Foot Numbness Symptoms in Diabetic Patients: Ban Phai Hospital, Khon Kaen Province

Abstract

           Diabetic patients who have foot numbness are a high risk of foot ulcer, leading to infection and dismemberment or death. Between 2008 and 2010, the proportions of complications of diabetic patients related to foot ulcer in Ban Phai Hospital were up 1.96, 2.6 and 3.2 percent respectively. The purposes of this quasi experimental design were to study the result of self-foot massage in 15
postures in order to relieve foot numbness symptoms and to study the satisfaction on media regarding self-foot massage. From to diabetic patients registered in 4 local community health centers of Ban Phai Hospital and 6 district health promoting hospitals from January 2010 to April 2011, 230 people were selected based on an inclusion criteria. They were divided into two groups, experimental group of criteria (126 cases) and a control group (104 cases). The experimental group received a training on self-foot massage with 15 postures. After training, there would be monitoring by monofilament every month for 3 consecutive months. Likewise, the study group would receive the monitoring
by monofilament every month for 3 consecutive months. Data was be analyzed by applying descriptive statistics which included frequency distribution, percent and average, and employing ttest for comparison of treatment results.
It was found that the patients in the experimental group had the percentage change of the reduction of the number of numbness points or the reduction of poor monofilament condition indicated a statistical significance at p<0.05. Comparing to the control group, the results of self-foot massage with an average of 4 times per week revealed that the 76.98 percent of most patients had the
more than 75 percent numbness points dropped. In addition, on satisfaction towards the media of self-foot massage, it was revealed that all in the experimental group were satisfied with foot massage posters and prints, and 96.03 percent of the group had a preference for foot massage manuals
and 68.25 percent for CDs.
Key words: diabetes, self-foot massage, foot numbness