The effect of sensory stimulation provided by family on arterial blood oxygen saturation in critical care patients

BACKGROUND: Stressors in the intensive care unit (ICU) impair patients’ comfort, excite the stress response, and increase oxygen consumption in their body. Non-medical interventions are recommended by several studies as a treatment to improve comfort in the ICU patients. Sensory stimulation is one of the most important interventions. Since arterial blood oxygen saturation is an important index of patients’ clinical and respiratory condition, this study aimed to investigate the effect of sensory stimulation provided by family on arterial blood oxygen saturation in critical care patients. MATERIALS AND METHODS: This study is a clinical trial conducted on 64 patients hospitalized in the ICU wards of Al-Zahra and Kashani hospitals in Isfahan, Iran in 2012 and 2013. The patients were selected by simple sampling method and were randomly assigned to two groups (study and control). Patients’ arterial blood oxygen saturations were measured 10 min before, immediately after, 10 min and 30 min after sensory stimulation in the study group, and simultaneously in the control group without any intervention. RESULTS: Repeated measures analysis of variance (ANOVA) showed a significant difference in the mean of arterial blood oxygen saturation levels 10 min before, immediately after, 10 min and 30 min after sensory stimulation in the study group (P < 0.001), but in the control group, the difference was not significant (P = 0.8). Pair wise comparison of the mean arterial blood oxygen saturation levels at different time points by Fisher's Least Significant Difference (LSD) showed that there was a significant difference in the intervention group (P < 0.022). But in the control group, there was no significant difference between pairs of time points (P > 0.18). CONCLUSIONS: Application of sensory stimulations as a nursing and non-medical intervention by the family members improves comfort and increases the level of blood oxygen saturation in critical care patients.