the efficacy of hot footbath in hospitalized covid-19 patients: an open-label randomized controlled trial

Covid-19 spread rapidly around the world from the end of 2019. hot footbath is a simple ancient technique, which has been used to alleviate many disorders. we aimed to investigate the effect of hot footbath in hospitalized covid-19 patients. this open-label randomized controlled trial was conducted in iran with allocation ratio of 1:1, with final sample size of 35 patients in each group. the intervention group received hot footbath (immersion of feet into the hot water at 42 °c, 10 cm above the ankles for 20 minutes, and then kept warm for 5 minutes) once a day for a week, in addition to the conventional therapy. the control group received only the conventional therapy; the primary outcomes evaluated were fever, respiratory rate, cough, fatigue, and myalgia; whereas admission rate, icu admission, and mortality were assessed as the secondary outcomes. except for cough intensity, cough frequency and fatigue (p value < 0.05), no significant differences were observed between the two groups in the primary and secondary outcomes. no adverse events were reported. hot footbath can be used as a non-invasive, highly acceptable, and complementary technique to alleviate covid-19 patients without any needs to expensive or special equipment; nevertheless, further studies with larger sample sizes are needed so as to accurately evaluate the effectiveness of hot footbath on clinical symptoms of covid-19.