Aims and objectives: To determine the effects of family member's massage therapy on the Vital signs and Glasgow Coma Scale Score of hospitalized patients in Intensive Care Unit.~Background: Unalleviated complications related to hospitalization including stress, anxiety, pain, and fear can easily impacts on different systems including brain and stimulates sympatric nerves and as a result causes instabilities in vital signs and deterioration in consciousness level. Alternative and complementary therapies including therapeutic massage have been used to decrease the mentioned side effects.~Design: A Triple-blinded Randomized controlled Clinical Trial Methods: All prolonged hospitalized patients and their families (45 patients and 45 family members in each group) were selected consecutively among the patients admitted in ICU. Data collection tool consisted of two parts. The first part included demographic data (age, mar¬ital status and Body Max Index) and the second part included a checklist to record the patient's vital signs (systolic blood pressure, diastolic blood pressure, respiratory rate, and pulse rate). All measurements were conducted in same time in both groups as follow: before the intervention (the whole massage therapy), one hour, two hours, three hours, and four hours. Collected data was analyzed using descriptive and analytical statistics utilizing SPSS 11.5 software.~Keywords: Family member's massage therapy; Vital signs; Glasgow coma scale; Intensive care unit; Randomized controlled Clinical Trial; Iran.
The effect of family member's massage therapy on the Vital signs and Glasgow Coma Scale Score of hospitalized patients in Intensive Care Unit: A Triple-blinded Randomized controlled Clinical Trial Study