One of the frequently used complementary health practices is reflexology. Reflexology may be helpful for various health disorders and enhance quality of life, according to research findings. However, before it can be widely used for health promotion, strong evidence of efficacy and safety must be demonstrated. The purpose of this systematic review is to assess the clinical trials completed in Türkiye to investigate the influence of reflexology on quality of life and to provide a conclusion with more evidentiary value to the literature. The review questions are (a) How does reflexology affect people's quality of life? (b) In what circumstances does reflexology usage affect a person's quality of life? (c) What suggestions are there for more research? Reflexology can reduce symptoms in conditions such as low back pain, irritable bowel syndrome, constipation, menopause, cancer (cervix, endometrial or ovarian, colorectal cancers), multiple sclerosis, overactive bladder and spastic cerebral palsy and can improve quality of life. However, although reflexology is an effective technique, the lack of research with a low risk of bias prevents any concrete recommendations from being made. Quality clinical trials evaluating the effectiveness of reflexology in improving quality of life appear to provide less than expected evidence. In conclusion, the factors used to evaluate the quality of studies in this review should be considered and, future research should focus on improving study quality.
Keywords: Reflexology; quality of life; systematic review
Sık kullanılan tamamlayıcı sağlık uygulamalarından biri de refleksolojidir. Araştırmaların bulgularına göre refleksoloji, çeşitli sağlık sorunları için yararlı olabilir ve yaşam kalitesini artırabilir. Bununla birlikte, sağlığın teşviki ve geliştirilmesi için geniş çapta kullanılmadan önce etkinliğinin ve güvenliğinin güçlü kanıtları gösterilmelidir. Bu sistematik derlemenin amacı, refleksolojinin yaşam kalitesi üzerindeki etkisini araştırmak için Türkiye'de tamamlanan klinik araştırmaları değerlendirmek ve literatüre kanıt değeri yüksek bir sonuç sunmaktır. İnceleme soruları şunlardır: (a) Refleksoloji insanların yaşam kalitesini nasıl etkiler? (b) Refleksoloji kullanımı hangi durumlarda kişinin yaşam kalitesini etkiler? (c) Daha fazla araştırma için hangi öneriler sunulabilir? Refleksoloji; bel ağrısı, irritabl bağırsak sendromu, kabızlık, menopoz, kanser (serviks, endometriyal veya over, kolorektal kanserler), multipl skleroz, aşırı aktif mesane ve spastik serebral palsi gibi durumlarda semptomları azaltabilir ve yaşam kalitesini artırabilir. Ancak refleksoloji etkili bir teknik olmasına rağmen ön yargı riski düşük olan araştırma eksikliği herhangi bir somut tavsiyede bulunulmasını engellemektedir. Refleksolojinin yaşam kalitesini iyileştirmedeki etkinliğini değerlendiren kaliteli klinik çalışmaların beklenenden daha az kanıt sağladığı görülmektedir. Sonuç olarak bu derlemede çalışmaların kalitesini değerlendirmede kullanılan faktörler göz önünde bulundurulmalı ve gelecekteki araştırmalar çalışma kalitesini iyileştirmeye odaklanmalıdır.
Anahtar Kelimeler: Refleksoloji; yaşam kalitesi; sistematik inceleme
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