In a previous trial of massage for osteoarthritis OA of the knee, we demonstrated feasibility, safety and possible efficacy, with benefits that persisted at least 8 weeks beyond treatment termination.
We performed a RCT to identify the optimal dose of massage within an 8-week treatment regimen and to further examine durability of response. Participants were adults with OA of the knee, randomized to one of four 8-week regimens of a standardized Swedish massage regimen 30 or 60 min weekly or biweekly or to a Usual Care control. WOMAC subscales of pain and functionality, as well as the visual analog pain scale also demonstrated significant improvements in the minute doses compared to usual care.
No significant differences were seen in range of motion at 8-weeks, and no significant effects were seen in any outcome measure at weeks compared to usual care. Given the superior convenience of a once-weekly protocol, cost savings, and consistency with a typical real-world massage protocol, the minute once weekly dose was determined to be optimal, establishing a standard for future trials. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
Its contents are solely the responsibility of the authors and do not necessarily represent the official views of NCCAM. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript. Competing interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist. Osteoarthritis OA is a slowly progressive degenerative disease of the joints that at present afflicts approximately 27 million Americans [1] , [2].
Conventional therapies for OA have limited effectiveness, and toxicities associated with suitable drugs thus often limit utilization, leaving many facing surgery or chronic, often debilitating, pain, muscle weakness, lack of stamina, and loss of function [3] , [4] , [5] , [6] , [7] , [8] , [9] , [10].
