Abstract:
Hypertension is a disease of the cardiovascular system which is one of the causes of high
mortality and morbidity. The anti-hypertensive drugs taken contain chemicals with various
side effects and are used for life. One of the treatments for non-pharmacological
hypertension is touch therapy. This study aims to determine the effects of foot touch
therapy to reduce blood pressure of hypertensive sufferers.
This research employed a Quasi Experiment design with a Non-Equivalent Control Group
design. The population ofthe treatment group and control group were patients with grade 1
hypertension consisting of 30 treatment groups and 30 control groups. The treatment group
receivedfoot touch therapy for 5 consecutive days for 15-20 minutes. Meanwhile, the
measurement of blood pressure employeda digital blood meter. The data processing and
data analysis employedpaired t test, and the effectiveness test employed ancova test.
The results of the studyreveals that the systolic blood pressure increases by 13.6 mmHg
and the diastolic decreases in diastolic blood pressure by 8.5 mmHg. The result showsp
value 0.000 <α, and it is concluded that H0 is rejected and means that Foot Touch Therapy
against blood pressure for patients with hypertension effectively reduces systolic blood
pressure. The therapy model is considered good by 72.8%. The results of the analysis of
the equivalence test in the diastolic variable group using the Levene's test obtained p
value> α.It can be concluded that the data is homogeneous. The Ancova analysis results
obtain F count 82.53 and p-value 0.000 <α, it can be concluded that H0 is rejected. It
means that foottouch therapy against blood pressure in patients with hypertension
effectively reduces diastolic blood pressure. The model of therapy is quite good by62%.
Foot touch therapy technique done with 15-20 minute- massage is proven to effectively
reduce systolic and diastolic blood pressure in people with hypertension. Based on the
results of the study, it is recommended to conduct further research by applying touch
therapy to patients with severe hypertension.
