the effect of thai massage therapy on the quality of sleep in patients with hemodialysis; a randomized controlled trial

Aims: one of the frequent problems in hemodialysis patients is sleep disorders. the aim of this study was to assess the effect of thai massage therapy on the sleep quality of hemodialysis patients. materials & methods: this was a randomized controlled trial conducted in kashan in 2020. for this randomized single-blinded clinical trial study, 80 hemodialysis patients in kashan hemodialysis center, iran, were selected. using the block randomization method, these patients were randomly assigned to intervention (n=40) and control (n=40) groups. in the intervention group, in addition to routine care for hemodialysis patients, 60-minute thai massages were performed three times a week for a month based on the participants’ convenience for morning or afternoon massages. for the control group, only routine care was done. the pittsburgh sleep quality index (psqi) was used to evaluate the quality of sleep. data was analyzed using the independent t-test, chi-square, and two-way analysis of variance with repeated measures.findings: the total sleep quality score one month after the intervention was 8.15±2.52 in the intervention group and 10.09±3.01 in the control group. the independent t-test showed a statistically significant difference between the two groups (p=0.004). conclusion: thai massage therapy effectively improved the participants’ quality of sleep.