| Summary: | 碩士 === 國立臺灣大學 === 健康政策與管理研究所 === 107 === Background：The fatigue is personal experience, from physical and psychological tiredness, strain and weakness status, with a sensation of extreme exhaustion. There is a high prevalence rate in older adults population. The fatigue will induce daily activity reduced, risks of disability development increased, quality of life reduced and mortality rate increased. Taiwan must face the serious issue that aging brings the tremendous loading economic expenditure. The acupressure is a traditional Chinese medicine treatment and health promotion practice and there are many evidences to the effectiveness, including the improving pain, fatigue, depression, anxiety, pressure , sleep disorder and quality of life. If we could use the self administered acupressure to improve the older adults fatigue and quality of life, there is a chance not only to enhance the older adults health but also to make a successful aging society.
Objectives：The objective of the study is to investigate the effects of self administered acupressure on fatigue and quality of life in older adults.
Methods：The study design was a single group with pretest and posttest design. The subjects of this study were older adults lived in Taipei City and New Taipei City older adults apartments. The self administered acupressure were practiced with three times a week , 15 minutes each time and persisted 12 times. The independent variable is acupressure. The dependent variables are fatigue and quality of life in older adults. The control variables are sex, age, marriage and education level. After teaching the older adults acupressure practice, the researcher investigated the difference about the fatigue and quality of life between the intervention of self administered acupressure.
Results：The results showed the fatigue pretest total score was 4.40 (SD=±1.79) decreased to the posttest score 3.69 (SD=±1.86)(P=0.005). The fatigue pretest general score was 4.88 (SD=±1.69) decreased to the posttest score 4.17 (SD=±2.10)(P=0.039). The fatigue pretest most severe score was 6.05 (SD=±2.24) decreased to the posttest most severe score 5.05 (SD=±2.63)(P=0.020). In the items of fatigue impact on daily activities, the score of fatigue impact on walking ability improved (P=0.024) and the score of fatigue impact on daily working improved (P=0.003). The pretest score of general health item of quality of life after the acupressure was 38.67 (SD=±6.02) improved to posttest score 42.58(SD=±7.17)(P=0.002). The pretest score of mental health of quality of life was 49.19 (SD=±7.23) improved to posttest score 51.09 (SD=±4.59)(P=0.025). There were no obvious difference in other items.
Conclusions and Recommendations： This study indicated self administered acupressure were effective for improvement of fatigue and quality of life in older adults. We suggested that after evaluating these older adults we could teach the self administered acupressure to improve the fatigue, walking ability, daily working and general health and mental health of quality of life. Further the acupressure practice could be provided to the older adults for the health promotion and decreased disability.
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