The effect of acupressure on sleep quality in hemodialysis patients.

OBJECTIVE: Our purpose was to investigate the effects of acupressure on sleep quality in hemodialysis patients. DESIGN: Randomized clinical trial. SETTING: The setting of the study was dialysis wards located in two university hospitals (Imam and Golestan) in Ahvaz, Iran. INTERVENTIONS: 48 end-stage renal disease patients on hemodialysis who scored 5 points or higher on the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI) were enrolled to the study. Acupressure group received acupressure intervention on the Shenmen (He7) and He Gu (Li4) points in the hands and Sanyingjao (sp6) point in the feet for 4 weeks beside routine care and control group received only routine care. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: subjective sleep quality, latency and duration, habitual sleep efficiency; sleep disturbances, daytime functional status, and use of sleeping medications. RESULTS: The result indicated significant differences between the acupressure group and the control group after intervention in PSQI global scores (p<0.001) and all sleep quality indices between two groups after intervention: subjective sleep quality (p<0.001), sleep latency (p<0.001), sleep duration (p<0.001), sleep efficiency (p=0.006), sleep disturbance (p<0.001), the use of sleeping medication (p=0.028), and daytime dysfunction (p<0.001). CONCLUSION: This study supports the effectiveness of acupressure in improving sleep quality of end-stage renal disease patients as a noninvasive therapy.