Effect of Massage Applied to Hemodialysis Patients on Comfort Level and Fatigue

Chronic renal failure (CRF) is a health problem that causes significant mortality and morbidity worldwide. The prevalence of the disease is increasing worldwide, especially in developing countries. Hemodialysis (HD) is the most common treatment method for CRF in the world. Approximately 90% of patients with CRF receive HD treatment. Despite advances in technology and medical care due to HD treatment, patients experience many physical and psychosocial symptoms. It is emphasized that comfort is significantly negatively affected in HD patients due to reasons such as the direct impact of HD treatment on the daily and social lives of patients. Increasing the comfort level is important for the patient to continue their daily life activities. In addition, comfort is accepted as the basis of quality nursing care. Increasing the comfort levels of HD patients provides lower comorbidity and mortality rates and improvement in institutional patient outcomes. Fatigue, one of the physical symptoms seen in HD patients, affects 60-95% of patients. Fatigue increases the patients' dependency levels, reduces their physical capabilities, negatively affects the patient and their family economically and reduces their quality of life. Therefore, effective management of fatigue is of great importance for the patient. Despite affecting the patients' lives to this extent, fatigue and discomfort have often been overlooked and neglected symptoms due to their subjective nature. Various pharmacological and non-pharmacological treatment methods are used to control fatigue due to CRF or HD and to bring the desired patient comfort. One of the non-pharmacological methods is massage. Massage can be defined as scientific systematic manipulations applied to body tissues in order to affect the locomotor system and nervous system as well as the general circulation. There are studies in the literature where various applications are applied to HD patients to affect fatigue and comfort. However, it is striking that there is no study examining the effect of massage on the comfort and fatigue levels of patients receiving HD treatment. Therefore, the research was planned to examine the effect of massage on the comfort level and fatigue level of HD patients.