Aromatherapy for Relieving Chronic Pain in Community-Dwelling Older People: a Feasibility Study-Juniper Publishers
Introduction: Chronic pain is a serious problem in the older population. Older people often seek complementary health approaches (CHA) to combat pain. Aromatherapy is a type of CHA with proven pain-relieving effect. This study aims to explore the effectiveness and acceptability of aromatherapy among Chinese community-dwelling older people who suffered from chronic pain. A convenience sample of 24 eligible community-dwelling older people in Hong Kong was recruited and randomly assigned to intervention or waitlist control group. The inclusion criteria were as follows: Chinese nationality, aged 60 years or above, cognitively intact, suffered from chronic pain for at least 6 months, and did not receive any complementary therapy over the past 3 months. The subjects received a 20-minute tailor-made aromatherapy massage with three kinds of essential oils (sweet marjoram, lavender, and eucalyptus) with pain relieving effects. The visual analogue scale (VAS) was use...