Massage Therapy for Hospitalized Patients Receiving Palliative Care: A Randomized Clinical Trial
- Publisher:
- Elsevier
- Publication Type:
- Journal Article
- Citation:
- Journal of Pain and Symptom Management, 2023, 65, (5), pp. 428-441
- Issue Date:
- 2023-05
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| Filename | Description | Size | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1-s2.0-S0885392423000465-main.pdf | Published version | 1.19 MB |
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CONTEXT Massage therapy is increasingly used in palliative settings to improve quality of life QoL and symptom burden however the optimal massage dosage remains unclear OBJECTIVES To compare three massage dosing strategies among inpatients receiving palliative care consultation METHODS At an urban academic hospital we conducted a three armed randomized trial examining three different doses of therapist applied massage to test change in overall QoL and symptoms among hospitalized adult patients receiving palliative care consultation for any indication Arm I 10 min massage daily 3 days Arm II 20 min massage daily 3 days Arm III single 20 min massage Primary outcome measure was single item McGill QoL question Secondary outcomes measured pain symptoms rating of peacefulness and satisfaction with intervention Data were collected at baseline pre and post treatment and one day postlast treatment follow up Repeated measure analysis of variance and paired t test were used to determine significant differences RESULTS Total n 387 patients were 55 7 15 49 years old mostly women 61 2 and African American 65 6 All three arms demonstrated within group improvement at follow up for McGill QoL all P 0 05 No significant between group differences were found Finally repeated measure analyses demonstrated time to predict immediate improvement in distress P 0 003 and pain P 0 02 for all study arms however only improvement in distress sustained at follow up measurement in arms with three consecutive daily massages of 10 or 20 minutes CONCLUSION Massage therapy in complex patients with advanced illness was beneficial beyond dosage Findings support session length 10 or 20 minutes was predictive of short term improvements while treatment frequency once or three consecutive days predicted sustained improvement at follow up
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