Effect of Oil Massage Therapy to Low Birth Weight Infants at Sri Ramakrishna Hospital, Coimbatore

An Interventional study was conducted to identify the effect of oil massage therapy to low birth weight infants at Sri Ramakrishna Hospital, Coimbatore. The study was conducted from 10th May 2010 to 10th June 2010. Quasi Experimental Pretest Post test Control group design was adopted for this study. A purposive sample of 14 infants were selected and assigned randomly to experimental and control groups. The baseline data were collected from the infants record, weight was assessed by electronic weighing scale and neurobehavioral responses was assessed by Modified Brazelton’s Neurobehavioral Assessment Scale for both experimental and control groups. Oil massage was implemented with duration of 15 minutes to experimental group 3 times a day in 4 hours interval. Weight was assessed before and after the intervention and neurobehavioral responses was assessed on the first and 10th day of intervention. Weight and neurobehavioral responses of experimental group were compared with control group. The result reveals that there is a significant difference in weight and neurobehavioral responses after oil massage