EFFECTIVENESS OF EPSOM SALT HOT WATER APPLICATION ON KNEE JOINT PAIN AMONG ELDERLY PEOPLE AT SELECTED OLD AGE HOME

Background: Osteoarthritis is a progressive musculoskeletal joint disorder of basically Knee, Hip, and Shoulder among which Knee OA is highly prevalent. Bilateral Knee OA is dominant over Unilateral Knee OA. Obesity, age, gender, educational background, and occupation were included in the risk factors of OA. Prevalence of Knee OA is reported more in highly obese geriatric female patients who have low education and did hard work. Objective: To evaluate the effectiveness of Epsom salt hot water application on knee joint pain among elderly people at selected old age homes. Material and methods: The study used a quasi-experimental approach with two groups pretest-posttest non-randomized control group design. purposive sampling technique was used to collect data from 60 old age people with age groups above 60 from selected old age homes in Dehradun. Result: The Epsom salt hot water application has shown a Highly significant difference ( t=30.077 at p-value .OO1) between the pretest and posttest with a mean +SD of 6.233± 1.135 in the experimental group was significant at p<0.05 level.Independent t test was used for significant comparison between the experiment and control in the post-test with mean±SD 3.40±1.44, the obtained Independent t value 2.346 was significant at p-value= 0.022. Post-test had a higher mean score in the experimental group than in the control group. Conclusion: This study concluded that Epsom salt hot water application is effective in reducing knee joint pain.