International Journal of Therapeutic Massage and Bodywork: Research, Education, and Practice最新文献

Background: An increasing number of licensed massage therapists in several countries are providing acupuncture to their clients, but little is known about this practice.

Purpose: To characterize the motivations, training backgrounds, practice patterns, and clinical experiences of licensed massage therapists who perform acupuncture.

Research design: The study used a cross-sectional, online survey design involving acupuncture-providing registered massage therapists (RMTs) in the province of Ontario, Canada, where acupuncture is explicitly permitted within the massage therapy profession's scope. Analysis involved descriptive statistics and thematic content analysis of qualitative findings.

Results: The survey response rate was 33.7% (n=212), representing 25.5% of all Ontario RMTs rostered to practice acupuncture. Participant demographics mirrored the RMT profession as a whole, except that providers were, on average, several years older than other RMTs. Most respondents (72.7%) had completed over 200 hours of training in acupuncture; most training included clean needle technique (96.8%), clinical supervision (93.5%), traditional Chinese medicine content (83.4%), and a final examination (96.8%). Respondents typically used acupuncture in about one-third of their sessions (mean 32.3%, SD 5.0) with an average of 10.5 weekly clients (SD 14.3). Acupuncture-providing RMTs had been initially motivated by acupuncture's potential effectiveness for musculoskel-etal conditions (97.2%), a wish to attract more clients (61.3%), and physical fatigue from delivering manual therapies (48.3%). Most reported being more likely to achieve excellent clinical results (84.9%), experience greater professional satisfaction (79.9%), and attract or retain clients (64.8%) since using acupuncture. A minority also reported earning a higher income (34.6%) and experiencing more adverse events in practice (21.5%). Qualitative responses added explanatory nuance to numeric results.

Conclusions: This study of the use of acupuncture by Ontario's licensed massage therapists represents a first scholarly account of an emerging global trend that holds promise in enhancing clinical care, professional stability, and provider longevity. Additional research is needed to investigate the practice's use in other jurisdictions, and to establish international standards for safe and effective practice.

Background: Despite the general belief of the benefits and the widespread use of massage in sport field, there are limited empirical data on possible effectiveness of massage on psychological and physical functional variables.

Purpose: The main objective of the present study was to compare the effectiveness of classical and light touch massage on psychological and physical functional variables in athletes.

Setting: Athletic club of Valencia.

Participants: 20 amateur athletes were recruited from two athletic clubs.

Research design: A single-blind, randomized, pilot-placebo trial.

Intervention: The subjects were randomly allocated to two different groups: a) Massage group (MG) (n=10); b) Control group (CG) (n=10). The intervention period lasted one month (one session per week).

Main outcome measures: Assessment of the participants was performed at baseline and 24 hours following the completion of the intervention. Outcome measures included hip flexion, knee extension, and mood state.

Results: The results suggest that MG obtained better results on physical variables (p < .05). However, for both groups, trends suggest significant improvements in the overall mood state of the participants (p < .05).

Conclusion: Our results suggest that classic massage could be an effective intervention to improve functional physical variables in athletes. However, trends suggest that a light touch intervention could provoke improvements in physiological measures.

It has been documented that there are disparities in who seeks massage therapy in the United States. Yet, there are few conversations about race and ethnicity of the massage therapists who provide these services. We must examine the diversity, equity, and inclusion within the massage therapy profession and consider how the profession can improve the landscape for clients/patients and for those who feel called to work within this field. Although the diversity of the profession and those who seek treatment are rarely discussed, this paper explores these issues and offers possible solutions to expand the diversity of the profession and patient population.

Background: Shift work is a necessary part of many industries; however, it can have detrimental effects on health over time.

Purpose: This study investigated the effect of a massage intervention on the cardiac autonomic activity and blood inflammatory markers of healthy medical residents working night shifts.

Setting: This trial was conducted at British Columbia Children's and Women's Hospital between February 2014 and June 2016.

Participants: Included participants were generally healthy medical residents and were working rotating night shifts on a regular basis.

Research design: This was a randomized, controlled, crossover, open-label trial (NCT02247089).

Interventions: Participants received either a 30-min massage intervention or reading control after consecutive periods of night shift.

Main outcome measures: The primary outcome was high frequency, a proxy for the cardiac parasympathetic activity, measured via heart rate variability. Secondary outcomes included other heart rate variability measures, blood markers of inflammation, and blood pressure.

Results: Twelve participants were recruited (nine female) with median age of 28 years. There was no significant difference between the massage intervention and the reading control for the primary outcome, (median relative change between pre- and postmassage [interquartile range]: 62% [-1 to 150], pre- and postreading: 14% [-10 to 51], p = .16). Similarly, there was no difference with respect to blood inflammatory markers and blood pressure. Median high frequency significantly increased between pre- and postmassage (185 vs. 358 ms², p = .04).

Conclusion: This pilot study found no statistically significant difference between the massage intervention and the reading control; however, we did observe a significant increase in median high frequency from before massage to after massage, indicative of increased parasympathetic activity. This study may help inform planning of larger trials evaluating massage interventions on the activity of the autonomic nervous system and managing shift work stress.