Aims: To examine the feasibility and efficacy of self-help relaxation exercises in alleviating symptom distress in adult patients with acute leukemia (AL).
Methods: A pilot randomized controlled trial was used. Thirty adult patients with AL who were hospitalized in a teaching hospital were enrolled and randomly divided into a wait-list control group or an intervention group. The intervention group received self-help relaxation exercise twice per day for 4 weeks. The feasibility indicators, patients' symptom distress were assessed by a blinded data collector.
Results: Twenty-nine patients completed the study. The recruitment rate, retention rate, and adherence rate was 65.2%, 93.3%, and 98.2%, respectively. The intervention group had a significantly decreased distress score for pain symptoms (F1, 27 = 6.594, P = .016, the partial η2 = 0.20, 90% confidence interval = 0.02-0.39).
Conclusions: Self-help relaxation exercises were feasible for the AL patients and significantly reduced their pain symptoms. Minor revision of the protocol for future definitive trials is needed.
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