Introduction: Type 1 diabetes mellitus (T1DM), also known as insulin-dependent diabetes or juvenile diabetes, is a chronic illness in which the pancreas produces little or no insulin. The treatment emphasizes controlling blood sugar levels with insulin, food, and lifestyle changes to avoid complications. Reflexology is one of the complementary and alternative therapies used to treat various ailments. Reflexology on the pancreatic area of the palms (R-PAP) reduces blood glucose levels in type 2 diabetes. However, no study reported its effect in T1DM. This study aims to evaluate the effects of R-PAP on random blood glucose (RBG) levels in children with T1DM. Method: In this single-group pre-test and post-test experimental study, 50 children with T1DM were included. All the subjects underwent one session of R-PAP in the pancreatic area of both palms for 10 min. RBG levels were obtained before and immediately after R-PAP. Statistical analysis was done using the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences, version 16. A P value of <0.05 was considered significant. Results: There was a statistically significant reduction in RBG levels (from 314.92 ± 113.42 to 302.02 ± 112.94; P = 0.004) after the intervention compared to baseline assessment. None of the subjects reported any adverse effects during the study period. Conclusions: Ten minutes of R-PAP might have some effect in reducing blood glucose levels in children with T1DM. Small sample size, short intervention duration, no follow-up, minimum effect size, and a lack of a control group and other biomarkers are limiting the scope of this study. Hence, the results of this study should be treated cautiously, and further studies are recommended to validate the study results.
Shobanadevi et al. (Thu,) studied this question.
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