Effect of lavender aromatherapy on pruritus, anxiety, and sleep quality of patients undergoing hemodialysis: a randomized controlled trial.

Background: Patients undergoing hemodialysis experiences some symptoms. Pruritus, anxiety, and sleep quality are three of the most common symptoms. Even though some pharmacological treatments use to cope with these symptoms, they are still experienced by the patients at a high level. Aim: This study aimed to determine the effect of lavender oil aromatherapy on pruritus, anxiety, and sleep quality of patients undergoing hemodialysis. Method: This randomized controlled study was carried out between December 2019 and March 2020. Eighty of 895 eligible patients were included in the study. Aromatherapy inhalation and massage together applied to the patients for six weeks. 5D-Itch Scale, State Anxiety Inventory (SAI), and Richard Campbell Sleep Questionnaire (RCSQ) were used for data collection. IBM SPSS 25.0 were used for statistical analysis. Mann-Whitney U, Wilcoxon signed-ranks test, and repeated measures-ANOVA tests were used to compare the difference between the groups and simple regression analysis to investigate the relationship between the dependent and independent variables. Results: Most of the patients were male (57.5%) and aged between 41 and 55 years (52.5%). There was significant difference in the mean scores of SAI (Pretest: 44.02±5.33, Post-test: 35.40±4.52, P=0.003), 5D-Itch scale (Pretest: 9.80±2.04, Post-test: 7.00±2.31, P=0.001), and RCSQ (Pretest: 17.11 ±40.30, Post-test: 58.55±33.74, P=0.002) within time in the intervention group. There was a statistically significant difference between the groups regarding the mean scores of SAI (Intervention: 35.40±4.52, Control: 46.84±4.62, P=0.003), 5D-Itch scale (Intervention: 7.00±2.31, Control: 8.96±2.05, P=0.004), and RCSQ (Intervention: 58.55±33.74, Control: 19.93±28.36, P=0.001) after the intervention. Conclusion: After six-weeks intervention, lavender aromatherapy was found an effective way to reduce pruritus, anxiety and to improve the sleep quality of patients undergoing hemodialysis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]