Improved Itchy Quality of Life Following Topical Application of Sweet Almond Oil in Patients with Uremic Pruritus: A Randomized, Controlled Trial

Background: There is few evidence about the effect of almond oil on uremic pruritus. Objectives: The study aimed at examining the effect of topical application of sweet almond oil on itchy quality of life (QoL) in patients with uremic pruritus. Methods: The current randomized, controlled, clinical trial was conducted on 42 patients referring to hemodialysis unit of Shahid Beheshti Hospital affiliated to Yasuj University of Medical Sciences, Yasuj, Iran. The samples were selected based on the inclusion criteria and randomly allocated to intervention and control groups. In the intervention group, 7 - 10 mL of sweet almond oil was locally applied on the areas of pruritus once a day for two weeks. Pruritus-specific QoL instrument was used to data collection at three times as pre-intervention, and end of the first and second weeks of intervention. The collected data were analyzed with SPSS using descriptive and inferential statistics with 95% confidence interval (CI). Results: Repeated measures analysis of variance showed a significant difference in the mean score of itchyQoL between two groups before and after the intervention (P = 0.001). Intragroup comparison showed significant changes (P = 0.001) from baseline measure (50.3 ± 16.7) by the mean score of itchyQoL at the end of the first (41.7 ± 18.7) and second weeks (31.7 ± 8.9) of applying sweet almond oil in the intervention group. Conclusions: In the current study, topical application of sweet almond oil significantly improved itchyQoL in patients with uremic pruritus.