Foot massage and bed baths serve as effective supplementary nursing interventions for reducing fatigue and improving sleep quality in hospitalized cancer patients.
Key Findings
Results
Foot massage produced significantly lower fatigue scores compared to both the bed bath group and control group beginning on day three of the intervention.
The study used the Brief Fatigue Inventory (BFI) to measure fatigue across five repeated measurements.
On day three, the foot massage group demonstrated lower mean BFI scores compared with both the bed bath group and control group (p < .05).
On day four, this difference reached higher significance (p < .001) for the foot massage group versus both comparator groups.
Interventions were administered for four consecutive days, two hours before bedtime, with each session lasting 30 minutes.
The foot massage group consisted of 12 patients in a three-group randomized controlled experimental design.
Results
On the final measurement day (day five), both the foot massage and bed bath groups showed significantly lower fatigue scores than the control group.
On day five, BFI scores of both the foot massage group and the bed bath group remained lower than those of the control group.
This difference reached statistical significance at p < .001.
The control group (n = 15) received routine care without additional interventions.
Before the interventions began, there were no significant differences between groups in terms of fatigue, confirming baseline equivalence.
Results
Foot massage improved sleep quality significantly compared to the control group starting from day three of the intervention.
Sleep quality was measured using the Richard Campbell Sleep Questionnaire (RCSQ), with higher scores indicating better sleep quality.
Starting from day three, the foot massage group exhibited significantly higher mean RCSQ scores than the control group (p < .05).
By day four, the difference between the foot massage group and the control group reached p < .001.
No significant differences were observed between the foot massage and bed bath groups on the RCSQ (p > .05).
Results
Bed bath intervention improved sleep quality significantly compared to the control group beginning on day four.
From day four onward, the bed bath group demonstrated significantly higher RCSQ scores compared with the control group (p < .001).
The bed bath group consisted of 12 patients.
The bed bath intervention showed a later onset of significant sleep improvement (day four) compared to foot massage (day three).
No significant differences were observed between the bed bath and foot massage groups regarding sleep quality (p > .05).
Results
Foot massage demonstrated earlier and broader effects on fatigue reduction compared to bed bath, while both interventions produced equivalent improvements in sleep quality.
On days three and four, the foot massage group had significantly lower BFI scores than both the bed bath group and control group, whereas bed bath did not separate significantly from control on fatigue until day five.
For sleep quality (RCSQ), no significant differences were observed between the foot massage and bed bath groups at any measurement point (p > .05).
The study employed a three-group randomized controlled experimental design conducted between April and November 2024 in an oncology clinic of a university hospital.
Data were collected through five repeated measurements over the course of the study.
Methods
The study was conducted with a relatively small sample of 39 hospitalized cancer patients using a randomized controlled experimental design.
Participants were randomly assigned to three groups: Foot Massage (n = 12), Bed Bath (n = 12), and Control (n = 15).
The research was conducted in the oncology clinic of a university hospital between April and November 2024.
Data were collected using the Patient Information Form, the Brief Fatigue Inventory (BFI), and the Richard Campbell Sleep Questionnaire (RCSQ).
The trial was registered at ClinicalTrials.gov (NCT06373614) in April 2024.
Before interventions began, there were no significant differences between groups in fatigue or sleep quality, confirming successful randomization.
What This Means
This research suggests that simple nursing care techniques — specifically foot massage and bed baths — can meaningfully reduce fatigue and improve sleep quality in cancer patients who are hospitalized. The study followed 39 cancer patients divided into three groups: one receiving 30-minute foot massages, one receiving 30-minute bed baths, and one receiving only standard care. Both interventions were given once daily for four consecutive days, two hours before bedtime. Researchers measured fatigue and sleep quality five times throughout the study using validated questionnaires.
This research suggests that foot massage worked somewhat faster and more broadly for fatigue reduction — it showed significant benefits over both the bed bath group and control group by day three and four, while bed baths only showed significant fatigue benefits compared to the control group by the final measurement on day five. For sleep quality, both foot massage and bed bath were similarly effective, with foot massage showing benefits starting on day three and bed baths showing benefits from day four onward. Neither intervention was significantly better than the other for improving sleep.
These findings matter because fatigue and sleep disturbances are among the most common and distressing problems for cancer patients, and there are few non-drug options that nurses can readily offer. This research suggests that relatively simple, low-cost, hands-on care techniques that nurses already perform — bed baths and foot massage — could be intentionally used as therapeutic tools to help ease these burdens in hospitalized cancer patients, potentially improving their comfort and quality of life during treatment.
Kabuk A, Demirel U, Inangil D. (2026). The effectiveness of nursing interventions on fatigue and sleep quality in hospitalized cancer patients: the role of foot massage and bed bath.. Supportive care in cancer : official journal of the Multinational Association of Supportive Care in Cancer. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00520-026-10386-7