The effect of aroma foot spa on stress

Abstract To identify the effect of the aroma foot spa on the stress, 12 university students with stress were divided into control group (6 subjects) and aroma foot spa group (6 subjects). Control group was not subjected to any kind of intervention while aroma foot spa group was subjected to 10 minutes of foot bath using 5 % Juniper, lavender and lemon essential oil and 10 minutes of foot massage using massage cream during four weeks, two times per week. As for the evaluation method, brain wave was studied to measure the amount of change in stress. After measuring the change in the brain wave before and after the experiment, it was proven that the aroma foot spa group’s Alpha wave (Z=-2.364, p<.05) and SMR wave (Z=-1.981, p<.05) were higher than those of the control group. Moreover, when the pre and post experiment results of the aroma foot spa group were measured, it was proven that the Theta wave (Z=-2.366, p<.05) decreased while Alpha wave (Z=-2.371, p<.05) increased. In other words, aroma foot spa that included foot bath using essential oil and foot massage increased Alpha wave which in turn influenced the brain wave due to increased blood circulation resulting from muscle relaxation. Moreover, SMR wave increase was closely related to the change in Alpha wave, which demonstrates that SMR wave increased due to stress alleviation