RESUMO
PURPOSE: This study was done to identify the effects of Qi hand reflexology on autonomic nerve activity in patients admitted to hospital. METHOD: A non-equivalent control group and quasi-experimental research with pre/post test design were used and 59 patients on a medical ward were assigned to either the experimental group (32) or the control group (27). The study variables included vital signs, autonomic nerve activities (ALF (absolute low frequency), AHF (absolute high frequency), nLF (normalized low frequency), nHF (normalized high frequency), SDNN (standard deviation of all normal-normal intervals)) and were evaluated using the QECG-3 system. The experimental group was treated with Qi hand reflexology for 10 minutes per day, for 3days. RESULTS: Skin temperature and systolic blood pressure in the experimental decreased with treatment. ALF, AHF and SDNN for the experimental group increased with regulating proportion (nLF: nHF=6:4) and a significant difference between the groups was observed. CONCLUSION: The results indicated that application of Qi hand reflexology for patients in the hospital is effective in regulating the autonomic nervous system activation. Implication of finding should be useful for future research.