A review of the effect of aromatherapy on sleep quality in children with leukemia

Introduction: Sleep disturbance is one of the most common problems in children with leukemia. One of the alternative treatments in this field is aromatherapy, which is simple, safe, and relatively inexpensive to implement. Therefore, a review of interventional studies was conducted to determine the effect of aromatherapy with different essential oils on the quality of sleep in children with leukemia. Method: This study is a systematic review of interventional studies conducted on the effect of aromatherapy on sleep quality in children with leukemia. In this study, we searched for the keywords: (aromatherapy) and (sleep quality), (children + leukemia), in both Persian and English languages in the databases, Google Scholar, Scopus, PubMed and SID, which were studied in accordance with the Cochrane protocol. After reviewing ۱۲۰ articles found, we found ۱۰ intervention studies related to our research title. Conclusion: Data analysis after aromatherapy indicated a statistically significant difference in most sleep disorders in the test group, including sleep duration, sleep anxiety, and insomnia, compared to similar sleep disorders in the control group. Also, data analysis before and after aromatherapy showed that the mean difference in scores of most sleep disorders, such as sleep duration, sleep anxiety, and insomnia, was significant in the experimental group and not significant in the control group. Result: Aromatherapy, including scents of lavender, orange, and rose, etc., can improve sleep disorders in hospitalized school-age children with leukemia and ultimately improve the quality of sleep and quality of life of these children.

کلیدواژه ها:

Aromatherapy ، Sleep quality ، Children + Leukemia