The Effect of Mixed Method Massage on the spirometric Indices in Asthmatic Children

The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of mixed method massage therapy on spirometric indexes in children suffered from asthma. Asthma is the most common chronic medical illness of childhood. The chronic and potentially life threatening nature of these disease, and the lack of definite preventive and curative therapies lead many families to seek complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) treatments.

60 children with asthma of 6 ‐ 13 year ‐ old were invited to participate in this study; only 58 of them agreed. They were divided into two equal groups randomly. Subjects in the massage therapy group received a 30 minute acupressure and massage therapy by their parents at home before bedtime every night for 4 weeks in addition to the standard asthma treatment. The control group received the standard asthma treatment alone for 4 weeks. A spirometry Test with exercise was done in both groups at the first and last days of the study. Data was analyzed use of SPSS18 software independent t-test, paired t-test, chi-square and covariance were used for data analysis.

The mean age of the children was 8.16(1.50) years. %51.7 of children were girls and %48.3 were boys and the mean onset age of asthma was 4.61(2.67). At the end of the study, there was no significant difference in mean spirometric indices (FEV1, FVC, PEF, FEV1/FVC), (p>0.05).

According to the obtained results, Mixed Method massage therapy in asthmatic children, can’t improve spirometric indexes and pulmonary functions. However, further research in this area is needed.