The recommendations made by the authors show that there is a need for improving the quality and reporting of future trials. The authors also suggest that a cost-benefit analysis be incorporated into the design of studies are that conducted in the future. The main strength of the report is that the risk of biases was low overall. The weakness that is presented in this review is that since there is a lack of research that examines the effects of aromatherapy on pain management during labor, the ability to make comparisons to other studies is limited. Implications for nursing cannot be made because the effects of aromatherapy has not been supported enough in the research (Smith et al., 2011). Overall, the authors determine that further evidence is needed to show how effective aromatherapy is on pain management during the active stage of …show more content…
The research questions that was presented by this article was to look at the effects of lavender on pain intensity perception in intrapartum women (Kaviani et al., 2014). The independent variable that is discussed in this report is aromatherapy, while the dependent variable is pain intensity that is felt by the women during the active stage of labor. The design for this quantitative report is a randomized controlled trial that has a level II evidence. The sample that is included in this report is women who are primiparous, >36 weeks gestation, single pregnancy, and at least 3-4 cm dilated. The methodology for this report used an aroma group and a control group. The aroma group was given even days, and the control group was given odd days. The data was then gathered using quesitonairs and the Visual Analogue Scale (VAS). The questionnaire asked the women about their demographics, pregnancy, delivery, and intensity of pain. The VAS is a ruler-like device which allows patients to rate their pain on a scale of 0-10 with 0 being no pain and 10 being the worst pain (Kaviani et al., 2014). The statistical test that is used to determine the results of the data that was gathered was entered in to SPSS and a Chi-square and t-test were used to analyze the results. The findings of this quantitative review revealed that