Comparative Study of the Effectiveness of Serai Wangi (local Product) and Lavender (International Product) in Reducing Stress among Nursing Students: A Randomized Controlled Trial

Last registered on June 12, 2016

Pre-Trial

Trial Information

General Information

Title
Comparative Study of the Effectiveness of Serai Wangi (local Product) and Lavender (International Product) in Reducing Stress among Nursing Students: A Randomized Controlled Trial
RCT ID
AEARCTR-0001313
Initial registration date
June 12, 2016

Initial registration date is when the trial was registered.

It corresponds to when the registration was submitted to the Registry to be reviewed for publication.

First published
June 12, 2016, 11:14 AM EDT

First published corresponds to when the trial was first made public on the Registry after being reviewed.

Locations

Region
Region

Primary Investigator

Affiliation
UiTM

Other Primary Investigator(s)

PI Affiliation
UiTM
PI Affiliation
UiTM

Additional Trial Information

Status
Completed
Start date
2016-02-15
End date
2016-05-25
Secondary IDs
Abstract
Aromatherapy, therapeutic use of inhaled essential oils, is a popular stress-reducing approach due to low side effects.This study was carried out about aromatherapy and its effectiveness in reducing stress among nursing students in UiTM Puncak Alam. We are also introducing our local product which is Serai Wangi (Cymbopogon nardus) as an essential oil. It also reviews on the effectiveness of our local product to be compared with established aromatherapy which is Lavender. This study used Randomized Controlled Trial, which involves nursing students in UiTM Puncak Alam. By using this design, we recruited three groups of participants where they were treated as one intervention group who received Serai Wangi as aromatherapy meanwhile the other two controlled groups received Lavender aromatherapy and plain water. The study held for two weeks and the duration of intervention is 8 hours which is from 10pm until 6am. Result shows that stress level reduced significantly by using local aromatherapy which is Serai Wangi compared to the international aromatherapy which is Lavender. Meanwhile, there is no significant reduced in stress level when we used plain water as a placebo. As conclusion, Serai Wangi has the same ability as Lavender and has potentially marketable.
External Link(s)

Registration Citation

Citation
Abdullah, Sharifah Shafinaz Sharif et al. 2016. "Comparative Study of the Effectiveness of Serai Wangi (local Product) and Lavender (International Product) in Reducing Stress among Nursing Students: A Randomized Controlled Trial." AEA RCT Registry. June 12. https://doi.org/10.1257/rct.1313-1.0
Former Citation
Abdullah, Sharifah Shafinaz Sharif et al. 2016. "Comparative Study of the Effectiveness of Serai Wangi (local Product) and Lavender (International Product) in Reducing Stress among Nursing Students: A Randomized Controlled Trial." AEA RCT Registry. June 12. https://www.socialscienceregistry.org/trials/1313/history/8760
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Experimental Details

Interventions

Intervention(s)
This study used three different types of aromatherapy which are Serai Wangi and Lavender as intervention while plain water as controlled. The lavender aromatherapy is widely used all over the world and research shown that it is very effective in reducing stress level. We used our local product, Serai Wangi aromatherapy to compare with international aromatherapy which is Lavender whether it is comparable or much better in reducing stress level among samples. All participants will spray the aromatherapy two puffs at their pillow before they are going to sleep and spray the aromatherapy every day in order to maintain the smell. We required them to inhale the aromatherapy starting from 10pm until 6am while they are sleeping which is eight hours per day.
Intervention Start Date
2016-02-29
Intervention End Date
2016-03-13

Primary Outcomes

Primary Outcomes (end points)
Post questionnaire given to the participants after received the aromatherapy for two weeks. From the data obtained, we failed to accept null hypothesis, where there is a significant difference in stress level between Serai Wangi and Lavender aromatherapy. For Serai Wangi, our local product is statistically and clinically proven to reduce stress same as international product which is Lavender as P value below than 0.05.
Primary Outcomes (explanation)

Secondary Outcomes

Secondary Outcomes (end points)
Secondary Outcomes (explanation)

Experimental Design

Experimental Design
Step one
A briefing was given to the students regarding the research procedure in order to get cooperation in choosing the participants.

Step two
The researcher selected the participants according to the convenience sampling method, information sheet was given to them and consent was asked from the respondents. The information sheet was given to them from the participant. Participant was given the time to decide whether to participate or not in this study. They are free to withdraw from the study.
The participants received the Perceived Stress Scale (PSS) Questionnaire survey to obtain baseline data about stress level and students with mild, moderate and high stress level will be chosen to continue with the research. We used random sampling method among nursing students in UiTM Puncak Alam. Firstly, we allocate the participants in 3 different groups, consists equal number of participants in each group. We have one control group and two intervention groups. We choose double blinded method while distributing the products to prevent bias. Colour coding is used to differentiate the different type of aromatherapy.
Other parties will help us in preparing and distributing the aromatherapies. Each person received one envelop and one aromatherapy bottle that have the same colour coded. It will indicate the aromatherapy that will be given to them since different colour coding represents different aromatherapy. The aromatherapy will be similar in every aspects in terms of colour of the bottle, colour of the solution and amount of solution to prevent the participants from recognizing the aromatherapy. We instructed them to spray the aromatherapy at their pillow before sleep to get optimum scent at 10pm. The aromatherapy must be sprayed for about one foot from their pillow two puffs every night for two weeks.

Step three
Finally, after two weeks of experimentation, the participants were asked to answer PSS Questionnaire regarding their stress level after received the aromatherapy.
Experimental Design Details
Randomization Method
We used simple random sampling. Colour coding is used to differentiate the different type of aromatherapy. Other parties will help us in preparing and distributing the aromatherapies. Each person received one envelop and one aromatherapy bottle that have the same colour coded. It will indicate the aromatherapy that will be given to them since different colour coding represents different aromatherapy. The aromatherapy will be similar in every aspects in terms of colour of the bottle, colour of the solution and amount of solution to prevent the participants from recognizing the aromatherapy.
Randomization Unit
individual randomization
Was the treatment clustered?
Yes

Experiment Characteristics

Sample size: planned number of clusters
3 groups
Sample size: planned number of observations
75 participants
Sample size (or number of clusters) by treatment arms
25 participants from control group (plain water), 25 participants from intervention group 1 (Serai Wangi), 25 participants from intervention group 2 (Lavender)
Minimum detectable effect size for main outcomes (accounting for sample design and clustering)
IRB

Institutional Review Boards (IRBs)

IRB Name
Universiti Teknologi MARA (UiTM)
IRB Approval Date
2016-01-21
IRB Approval Number
600-RMI (5/1/6)

Post-Trial

Post Trial Information

Study Withdrawal

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Intervention

Is the intervention completed?
No
Data Collection Complete
Data Publication

Data Publication

Is public data available?
No

Program Files

Program Files
Reports, Papers & Other Materials

Relevant Paper(s)

Reports & Other Materials