Swedish Foot Massage Therapy For The Treatment Of Blood Pressure And Pulse Rate In Hypertension

Abstract

Hypertension or high blood pressure is referred to as the silent killer because the symptoms that appear are often without complaints. If hypertension is not treated properly, there is a risk of cardiovascular diseases such as myocardial infarction, stroke and complications. The management of hypertension using Swedish foot massage for the treatment of blood pressure and pulse has never been done. The purpose of the study was to determine the use of Swedish foot massage for the treatment of blood pressure and pulse in hypertensive patients. The study used a quasi-experimental design with a two-group pre-post test design. The research sample was 10 people with hypertension at Baladhika Husada Hospital, Jember. The measuring instrument used a sphygmomanometer, stopwatch, stethoscope, blood pressure and pulse observation sheet, at 5 minutes before the intervention was given and 5 minutes after the intervention was given. Each respondent will be given an intervention with a duration of 15-20 minutes for 3 consecutive days. The analysis test used Wilcoxon sign rank test with p value < 0.000, and T-test dependent with p value < 0.000. The results of the Wilcoxon sign rank test in the intervention group (pretest and posttest) showed a p value = 0.008. The results of the T-test dependent on the intervention group (pretest and posttest) showed the value of p = 0.001. The difference in the decrease in blood pressure and pulse in the pretest and posttest is caused by the effect of massage therapy which has a relaxing effect and can reduce pain and provide a relaxing effect because it stimulates an increase in the production of endorphins.