Effects of "Back-Hot-Compress-Care" on Mood, Fatigue, Autonomic Nervous System of Gynecologic Surgery Patients

2001 Fiscal Year Final Research Report Summary

• Project/Area Number: 12672335
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
• Allocation Type: Single-year Grants
• Section: 一般
• Research Field: Clinical nursing
• Research Institution: Nagano College of Nursing
• Principal Investigator: NAWA Hideshi Nagano College of Nursing, Nursing, Associate Professor, 看護学部, 助教授 (90254482)
• Project Period (FY): 2000 – 2001
• Keywords: "back-hot-compress-care" / gynecological surgical patients / mood / fatigue / autonomic nervous system / spectrum analysis of heart rate variability / a quantity of action

Research Abstract

The present research dealt with
1) examining the temporal changes of "mood, fatigue, autonomic nervous system and a quantity of action" of gynecologic surgery patients during the pre-and post operative periods and after discharge and
2) comparing "back-hot-compress-care" with "bed rest" in terms of their influence on "mood, fatigue and autonomic nervous system."
As measurement tools I used
1) POMS (Japan) for "mood",
2) "subjective fatigue symptom" for "fatigue",
3) spectrum analysis of heart rate variability (Maximal Entropy Method) for "automatic nervous system" -LF/HF as an index of sympathetic nervous system ; HF as an index of parasympathetic nervous system), and
4) A pedometer by accelerometer for "a quantity of action".
I collected the data of the previous items form 10 patients -4 "bed rest" patients and 6 "back-hot-compress-care" patients -they were admitted to a hospital to receive an extraction of uterine myoma or ovarian cyst (average 46.6 years old). -two of them underwent an abdo minal operation and the rest an autoscope art. The sample size was small. Therefore, I made an additional collection of the date of the same items from 13 physically unimpaired persons (average 48.4 years old). At a final stage, I compared gynecological surgical patients with physically unimpaired persons in terms of influence of "back-hot-compress-care" and "bed rest".
As a consequence, I had the following findings. On the preoperative day the patients showed the higher degree of the "mood" - tension-anxiety, depression-dejection, fatigue and confusion - compared with the postoperative period and the period after discharge
Regarding the autonomic nervous system I found no significant changes between the pre- and postoperative periods and the periods after discharge, which I regarded as a "stable" condition. In the comparison between physically unimpaired persons and preoperative patients, I detected significant difference exclusively in "depression-dejection." Consequently, it became clear that the gynecological surgical patients - the objects of this research - made a favorable recovery.
Regarding the contents of everyday activity, however, the patients after discharge recovered about the 30 % of the physically unimpaired persons, which, I suppose, may raise a question as to nursing to level up the QOL of patients after discharge.
About the influence on "mood" in "back-hot-compress-care", I had no significant difference between gynecologic surgical patients and physically unimpaired persons. At the same time, this research also showed
1) that tension-anxiety, confusion were reduced among the postoperative patients, and
2) that depression-dejection, fatigue and confusion were reduced among the physically unimpaired persons.
In addition, about the influence on "autonomic nervous system" in "back-hot-compress-care", I had no significant difference between gynecologic surgical patients and physically unimpaired persons, either. Nonetheless, in comparison of "bed rest" with "back-hot-compress-care", the latter demonstrated a more frequent tendency to swing HF, LF/HF for both the gynecological surgical patients and physically unimpaired persons. Moreover, I found that LF/HF showed the tendency to converge after "back-hot-compress care".