Mr Sudip Das^1,, Miss Minerva Yembem²

A quasi experimental study to assess the effectiveness of hot water foot bath therapy on quality of sleep among the elderly in a selected old age home, Agartala, Tripura West. The objectives of the study is to assess the quality of sleep among the elderly and to determine the effectiveness of hot water foot bath therapy on quality of sleep among the elderly. The conceptual framework was used based on Wiedenbach’s modified Prescription theory. In this study elderly persons of old age home were selected as a sample. 40(fourty) samples were selected for the study, 20 (twenty) for both experimental group and control group by convenient sampling technique .Sleep quality of the elderly in both experimental group and control group assessed using modified Groningen sleep quality scale by interview technique which is modified by 7 (seven) experts of various nursing and medical department as well as by the statistician. Reliablity of the tool was 0.85 (r), that was checked using Kerl pearsons correlation coefficient method. Statistical analysis was done by chi square test and t test both paired t test, unpaired t test to determine the effectiveness of hot water foot bath therapy in quality of sleep among the elderly in both experimental and control group. There was significantly increased in mean post test score in experimental group with the mean deviation of 3.4 at 0.05 level of significance. The finding of the study revealed that paired ‘t’ test between pretest and post test score in experimental group showed significant increase in quality of sleep (t_cal = 15.86, p< 0.05) as compared to control group (t_cal = 0.53, p< 0.05). Unpaired ‘t’ test between post test score in experimental group and control group revealed that there was significant increase in quality of sleep in experimental group as compared to control group (t_cal = 5.09, p< 0.05). There was significant association between the pre-test quality of sleep scores with demographic variables such as sex (X² = 5.714, p< 0.05) and there was no significant association between the pre-test quality of sleep scores with remaining demographic variables. The study concludes that hot water foot bath therapy is effective in improve the quality of sleep among the elderly.

hot water foot bath therapy, sleep quality, elderly