Context: Pruritus is a common skin disease among older adults. With aging, there is a decrease in skin elasticity and thickness, and vascular changes occur that decrease the skin's ability to retain moisture.
Objective: To investigate the effects of aromatherapy massage on pruritis and stress levels in older women.
Design: This was a nonequivalence, pre-post, quasi-experimental study. To enhance the appropriateness and accuracy of the intervention, a pilot study was conducted before the main study.
Setting: The participants were recruited from six senior citizens' centers in Changwon City, Gyeongnam, South Korea.
Participants: The participants were 64 women ≥65 years of age with an average age of 80.7 years and 79.7 years in the intervention and the control groups, respectively.
Intervention: The intervention comprised aromatherapy massage with a blend of three essential oils: 1 mL of lavender, 0.25 mL of Roman chamomile, and 0.25 mL of sandalwood diluted to 1.5% with a sweet-almond carrier oil. The control group received massages with 0.25% sandalwood oil.
Outcome measures: The symptom score table of the Pruritus Score Scale was used to measure the degree, area, and frequency of pruritus and its impact on everyday life. The study also measured skin hydration levels using moisture-measuring module sensor, skin pH using the Howskin device, and stress using the Perceived Stress Scale.
Results: Of the 64 initial participants, 5 dropped out of the study, resulting in 59 being included in the analysis. A significant difference was found between the intervention and control groups regarding relief of pruritus (U = 302.5, P = .039) and stress levels (U = -6.36, P < .001). No adverse effects were observed.
Conclusions: Aromatherapy massage can be an effective intervention to decrease pruritus and stress in older women. Further studies with larger samples that also include men are required to confirm the generalizability of these results.