The purpose of this quasi-experimental research was to study the effect of symptom management combined with an aromatherapy massage program on fatigue among human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infected persons. Forty subjects were purposively selected. The first 20 subjects were assigned to the control group, and received routine nursing care, while the later 20 subjects were assigned to the experimental group, and received the symptom management combined with an aromatherapy massage program. Both groups were similar with regard to age, sex, opportunistic infection, antiretroviral medication used, and duration of resting time per day. The primary research instrument was an HIV-related fatigue scale developed by Barroso & Lynn. The data were analyzed for independent t-tests and one way repeated measure analysis of varience (ANOVA). The results showed that patients in the experimental group had significantly lower score than both before intervention and those of control group in terms of fatigue severity index, intensity and overall fatigue related functioning (p < 0.01).

The conclusion is that the intervention program can decrease fatigue among HIV-infected persons.