| RESEARCH ARTICLE |
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| Year : 2020 | Volume
: 21
| Issue : 2 | Page : 181-184 |
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Effectiveness of hot water footbath therapy in reducing body temperature amongst patients with fever
M Muthupriya, R Lakshmi
Assistant professor, Hindu Mission College of Nursing, Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India
Correspondence Address:
Mrs. M Muthupriya
Hindu Mission College of Nursing, Tambaram, Chennai, Tamil Nadu
India
 Source of Support: None, Conflict of Interest: None
DOI: 10.4103/IJCN.IJCN_19_20
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Fever has been recognised as a symptom and not a disease in itself. The thermoregulatory centre in the hypothalamus regulates body temperature. Hydrotherapy in the form of cold and tepid applications has been historically used for reducing increased body temperature. Many studies have looked at effect of hydrotherapy over pharmacological measures and have found that tepid or cold sponging reduces body temperature rapidly, but are associated with discomfort for the patients. There is some evidence that hot water soaks to foot reduces body temperature effectively. Hot water footbath is considered as a non-pharmacological, safe, side effect-free, cost-effective and easy-to-administer therapy to reduce fever. The aim of this study was to assess the effectiveness of hot water footbath therapy (HWFBT) in reducing the body temperature in adult patients with fever. Sixty patients were selected by convenient sampling technique, of which thirty patients were allotted to experimental group and thirty to control group by random method. HWFBT was given to experimental group. The control group received the standard care as per practice of the hospital. The findings showed that the difference in the mean body temperature in the post-test was significantly lower in the experimental group (P < 0.001). HWFBT may, therefore, be effectively used as an intervention to reduce the body temperature in patients with fever.
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