ABSTRACT
PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to verify the effect of aroma massage on constipation in advanced cancer patients. METHODS: This study employed a randomized control group pre- and post test design and included an aroma massage group, plain massage group, and control group. To evaluate the effect of aromatherapy, the degree of constipation was measured using a constipation assessment scale, severity level of constipation and the frequency of bowel movements. Data was analyzed by repeated measures of Mann-Whitney U test, Wilcoxon signed ranks test, Spearman's rho and ANOVA using SPSS program. RESULTS: The score of the constipation assessment scale of the aroma massage group was significantly lower than the control group. Apart from the improvement in bowel movements, the results showed significantly improved quality of life in physical and support domains of the aroma massage group. CONCLUSION: The findings of this study suggest aroma massage can help to relieve constipation in patients with advanced cancer.
Subject(s)
Aromatherapy , Constipation/therapy , Massage/methods , Neoplasms/complications , Quality of Life , Adult , Aged , Aged, 80 and over , Constipation/etiology , Defecation , Female , Humans , Male , Middle Aged , Pilot Projects , Severity of Illness IndexABSTRACT
It is the function of the design of a fuzzy-logic controller to determine the universes of discourse of the antecedents and the consequents, number of membership labels, distribution and shape of membership functions, rule formulation, etc. Much of the information is usually extracted from expert knowledge, operator experience, or heuristic thinking. It is hence difficult to mechanize the first-stage design of fuzzy-logic controllers using linguistic labels whose performance is no worse than that of conventional multivariable linear controllers such as state-feedback controllers, PID controllers, etc. In this paper, an original systematic seven-step linear-to-fuzzy (LIN2FUZ) algorithm is proposed for generating the labels, universes of discourse of the antecedents and the consequents, and fuzzy rules of ;basically linear' fuzzy-logic controllers, given the reference design of available conventional multivariable linear controllers. The functionally equivalent fuzzy-logic controllers can thus provide the sound basis for the further development to achieve performance beyond the capability or the conventional controllers. The validity and effectiveness of the proposed LIN2FUZ algorithm are demonstrated by a four-input one-output inverted pendulum system.
