Verification of stress reduction effect of aroma massage to women during infertility treatment

2018 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 15K15873
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Challenging Exploratory Research
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Research Field: Lifelong developmental nursing
• Research Institution: The Japanese Red Cross Toyota College of Nursing
• Principal Investigator: Chiba Asako 日本赤十字豊田看護大学, 看護学部, 講師 (50572624)
• Co-Investigator(Kenkyū-buntansha): 野口 眞弓 日本赤十字豊田看護大学, 看護学部, 教授 (40241202) ; 橋村 富子 滋賀医科大学, 医学部, その他 (80437128)
• Project Period (FY): 2015-04-01 – 2019-03-31
• Keywords: 不妊治療 / アロママッサージ / ストレス / リラクセーション

Outline of Final Research Achievements

This study aims to verify the stress reduction effect of aroma massage for women undergoing infertility treatment. A 10 minute aroma hand massage was performed on the forearm, palm, and dorsum of the hands of each of the arms, 20 minutes in total for the two arms of the intervention group participants.
We analyzed the results for 69 women in the intervention and 32 in the control groups. The heart rate during the aroma massage decreased significantly to 68.6 ± 8.5 beats/min in the intervention group and to 74.7 beats/min in the control group (p = 0.001). The mean of LF/HF (low/high frequency) during the aroma massage was significantly lower in the intervention group: 2.28 ± 1.58 versus 3.26 ± 1.56 in the control group (p = 0.003). The results of this study show that aroma hand massage has a relaxing effect on women under infertility treatment.

Free Research Field

母性看護学

Academic Significance and Societal Importance of the Research Achievements

アロマハンドマッサージのリラクセーション効果が生理学的指標である心拍数、LF/HFの低下により確認できた。また、主観的評価により、身体が回復した感覚や人から癒やされている感覚を持つことが明らかとなった。このことから、不妊治療中の女性へのアロマハンドマッサージは、不妊症治療中の女性への有効なストレスケアにつながると考える。