Vol. 8, Issue 6 (2019)

Introduction: Elderly population is over 82 million. A number of physiological changes occur when we grow older. It is of prime importance to distinguish the normal aging Vs the effect of disease. Disease condition if left untreated can result in “excess disability” and lessen the quality of life of an individual. Chronic rheumatic diseases, hip and knee osteoarthritis (OA) is leading cause of pain and disability in most countries worldwide and is most prevalent of all.

The present study title: “effectiveness of application of hot water with Epsom salt v/s plain hot water on Knee joint pain among geriatric women in selected urban areas. The objective of the study was to assess the level of Knee Joint Pain among geriatric women in both the experimental groups before and after the intervention, to assess the effectiveness of interventions in both the experimental groups, to compare the effectiveness of interventions between both the experimental groups and to determine the association between the level of Knee Joint Pain and Selected demographic Variables.

Material and Methods: In present study, researcher adopted pre-experimental two group pre-test post-test design. It was carried out on 60samples. The Non-probability purposive sampling technique was used to select samples for geriatric women with the age 65 to 85 years. 2gm of Epsom salt with 100ml of water was administered in experimental group 1and plain 100 ml hot water for group 2 for 15 days, with consensus of Ayurvedic doctors/experts. Ethical clearance was taken from Institutional ethics committee. Data analysis was done mainly using descriptive statistics test, T test.

Result: Majority (60%) of the geriatric women were from the age group between 65 to 70, 46.67% of them were Vegetarian & having body weight between 57 to 64 Kg, 63.33% of them were reported literate & suffering from pain since 4-6 years. Level of pain (19.58, 19.75) was almost same in both the experimental groups, the feelings related to pain was reported more in group 2 (15.57%), clinical outcome was almost same (15.52, 15.53) in both the groups and the level of activity was more in experimental group 1 as compared to other one. The total mean pain score of 58.67 was more in experimental group 2.

Conclusion: From the above findings, the researcher concluded that level of pain in both group was almost same but feeling related to pain was more in group with plain hot water.

Recommendation: It is suggested that the study may be replicated using a larger population of men and women having age related pain, A study can be carried out to assess the effects of application of hot water with Epsom salt, Similar study can be done to assess the effectiveness of Epsom salt.