The effect of foot reflexology on back pain among cricketers

The purpose of this quasi-experimental pretest-posttest study was to determine the effectiveness of reflexology on self-reported back pain compared to placebo (massage) and control among cricketers.

The volunteer participants consisted of 45 male cricket players who had been training at least for three years with a mean age of  18.481±2.32 years, mean body mass of 64.31±7.65, mean height of 174±5.39 cm, and a mean body mass index of 21.07± 1.97 kg/m². Cricketers were trained at Chandigarh and Mohali (India) cricket stadiums and participated in Interstate competition 2017. Cricketers were randomly assigned to reflexology, placebo, and control treatment groups. The reflexology group received topical pressure applied to their feet using a specific reflex area believed to have an effect on back pain. In addition, the placebo group received a foot massage avoiding reflexology area and control group received back pain information. Pre- and post-treatment interviews were conducted after one week (7 sessions). Each treatment was administered for 15 minutes as well. To determine the degree of the effect of reflexology on back pain, multiple regressions, and the factorial ANOVA and ANCOVA were used to analyze the hypotheses.

Both reflexology (P<0.001) and massage (P<0.001) treatments resulted in reducing the pain compared to providing back pain information, and there were significant differences between the reflexology and placebo groups (P<0.001). Finally, the results indicated that reflexology may have a positive effect on back pain.

Overall, foot reflexology, as an avenue for human touch, can be performed anywhere, requires no special equipment, is noninvasive, and does not interfere with patients’ privacy. However, an adequately powered trial is required before any more definitive pronouncements are possible.