The effectiveness of aromatherapy on stress management in nurses: a meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials

Abstract

Purpose: To evaluate the effectiveness of aromatherapy on stress management in nurses. Design: Meta-analysis. Methods: A systematic review and meta-analysis was performed following the PRISMA guidelines. We systematically searched English databases (PubMed, the Cochrane Library, Embase, and Web of Science) and Chinese databases (CNKI, CBM, Wan Fang, and VIP) for randomized controlled trials investigating the efficacy of lavender on stress in nurses. We assessed the risk of bias within studies with the revised Cochrane risk of bias tool for randomized trials. Data analysis was performed using Review Manager (version 5.4). Results: A total of 10 RCTs with 591 nurses were included. Meta-analysis showed that aromatherapy had a significant difference for reducing nurses' stress SMD= -0.37, 95% CI (-0.53, -0.21), P=0.001) , systolic blood pressure(SMD =-4.36, 95%CI [-7.94, -0.78], P = 0.12) , and diastolic blood pressure(SMD = -3.68, 95% CI[ -6.41, -0.95], P = 0.02). No signifificant difference in heart rate was found between the aromatic group and control group (SMD = -2.15, 95% CI [-4.79, -0.49], P = 0.65). Conclusion: The results of this meta-analysis study showed that aromatherapy can be effective at relieving nurses' stress. For more precise and dependable results, forthcoming research could allocate more significant resources toward original, high-quality investigations to further explore the effects of different types, doses, and concentrations of essential oil therapy on stress in nurses. In addition, nursing managers may consider arranging regular aromatherapy interventions for their staff to enhance their psychological regulation function, maintain their physical and mental well-being, and reduce stress levels to provide optimal medical care to patients.