The Effectiveness of Effleurage Back Massage on Vital Signs, Oxygen Saturation, and Anxiety of Patients with Hypertension

There have been numerous young people with hypertension and need treatment. The treatment measures experienced have side effects and are felt throughout life. Efforts to reduce side effects require non-pharmacological measures, incorporate effleurage back massage. The objective of this study is to assess the effectiveness of effleurage back massage on vital signs, oxygen saturation, and anxiety of patients with primary hypertension aged 45-54 years. The method in this study employed a quasi-experimental design with a non-randomized pretest-posttest control group design approach. The sample of this study were patients with primary hypertension aged 45-54 years who received regular treatment at UPTD Kesehatan (Health Unit) in Blitar City area, as many as 101 patients (51 treatment groups, 50 control groups). The inclusion criteria of patients were having a systolic blood pressure of 140-180 mmHg and diastolic 90-100 mmHg, obtaining a maximum of 2 standard antihypertensive treatments and not smoking. The analysis administered descriptive, time series, t-test and ANOVA. The results of this study presented that after the effleurage back massage, there was a decrease in systolic blood pressure of 13.88 mmHg, diastolic blood pressure of 10.08 mmHg, pulse 9.76 times per minute and respiration 0.67 times per minute. Effleurage back massage is effective if it is performed after 5 times and it spends time for the next massage to pause. Back massage can be performed alone by patients with hypertension every week for 20 minutes each massage.