Tactile massage within the primary health care setting

This paper describes an observational study describing how Tactile Massage (TM) was integrated into Swedish clinical medical care, the impact of this initiative suggests a foundation for future research. Subjects completed three questionnaires pre- and post-tactile massage. These were: Sense of Coherence (SOC), an enlarged Health Index (HI) and the Borg CR10 scale. RESULTS: A convenience sample of forty-three subjects (37 women and 6 men) were referred to TM treatment for a range of problems including for pain, sleep disorders, inability to move, headache and tense body. Patients received 10 TM treatments, each lasting approx. 1h in length. The enlarged HI questionnaire indicated that eleven out of fourteen parameters were significantly affected according (p-values between 0.0015 and <0.001). These included energy, mood, tiredness, sleep, pain, movement, health, general health and physical health. Pain reduction was also significantly reduced using the Borg CR10 scale (p<0.001). CONCLUSION: TM seems to affect several dimensions of health, and this should be explored more fully in future research.

Complement Ther Clin Pract. 2009 Aug;15(3):158-60. Andersson K, Törnkvist L, Wändell P. Center for Family and Community Medicine, Karolinska Institutet, SE-141 83 Huddinge, Sweden. katarina.andersson5@comhem.se