PERCEPTIONS AND SELECTED PHYSIOLOGICAL EFFECTS OF SLOW STROKE BACK MASSAGE IN HOSPICE CLIENTS (BACK MASSAGE).
Contributors: University of Texas at Austin.
Published: 1991
Number of pages: 233
Subjects: Health Sciences, Nursing.; Health Sciences, Medicine and Surgery.
Description: This study was designed to examine the effects of slow stroke back massage (SSBM) on selected physiological responses and to examine the qualitative perceptions of massage to dying people.

Data collection was triangulated, using both a quasi-experimental and qualitative descriptive design, with a convenience sample of 30 clients from two hospices. The clients had been in hospice a mean of 30.7 days (range of 7 to 153), 93.4% had a medical diagnosis of cancer, and had a mean age of 70.8 years (range of 50 to 90). Data were collected in the subjects' homes. Ten of the subjects participated in an interview designed to elicit subjective perceptions of massage.

It was hypothesized that SSBM would be associated with decreases in heart rate and systolic and diastolic blood pressure, and with an increase in skin temperature in hospice clients. The qualitative research question was: How is massage perceived by terminally ill people? The four dependent variables were measured twice pre- and twice post-intervention. The experimental intervention was a three minute SSBM, a nonpharmacological intervention used to elicit a relaxation response. The protocol was repeated 24 hours later.

Statistical analyses using repeated measures and one-way analyses of variance were computed. Findings supported all four hypotheses: SSBM was associated with a significant decrease in heart rate in hospice clients (F(1,29) = 16.86, p $<$.000); with a significant decrease in systolic blood pressure (F(1,29) = 37.78, p $<$.000); with a significant decrease in diastolic blood pressure (F(1,29) = 8.43, p =.007); and with a significant increase in skin temperature (F(1,29) = 39.27, p $<$.000). Denzin's (1989) framework for qualitative analysis using semiotics was utilized as a process to formulate a statement of the phenomenon of massage. Massage was perceived as being comforting, beneficial, and luxurious by dying people. Both the objective physiological indicators and the subjective findings converged on evidence that hospice clients felt relaxed and comforted following SSBM.

Additional findings regarding the meaning of dying emerged from the qualitative data. Dying was perceived as being an experience of the whole person which included psychological, physiological, intellectual, social, and spiritual meanings.
Notes: Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 52-07, Section: B, page: 3529.

Thesis (PH.D.)--THE UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS AT AUSTIN, 1991.

School code: 0227.
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