The Psychological Effect of Hand and Arm Massage on Middle-Aged Women

Jang, Hee Jung

Abstract

Massage therapy is a traditional, alternative and nonphamacological means of promoting rest and relaxation. However, nursing intervention by massage for middle-aged women is rarely practiced by nurses. The purpose of this research was to examine the effects of the hand and arm massage as an independent nursing intervention tool for middle- aged women. The data used in this research were collected from forty-nine subjects using a nonequivalent control group non- synchronized design. Twenty-four persons for the experimental group and Twenty-five persons for the control group were selected from D city and C city from July 1997 to September 2000. Subjects' ages were between forty and fifty-six years old with mean the age of 45.6. Hand and arm massage developed by Cayce and Reilly was applied to the experimental group for a session of 15 minutes two or three times a week for four weeks. The instruments used for the measurement of the subjects' stress, anxiety, depression and the middle-life crisis were Langners's 22-item Screening Score, Spielberger's State Anxiety Inventory, Zung's Self-rating Depression Scale, and Kim's Middle Life Crisis Scale(1988). These psychological factors were measured before and after the implementation of hand and arm massage. The data were analyzed with mean+/-s.d, percent, t-test, and a paired t-test. The results were summarized as follows; 1. Before the treatment, there were no significant differences between the two groups. 2. After the treatment, there were significant differences in the stress and the occurrence of mid life crisis between the two groups. The findings suggest that the use of the hand and arm massage for middle-aged women made significant changes in the level of stress and middle life crisis. Therefore, it is recommended that hand and arm massage be used as an independent nursing intervention tool for middle-aged women. For further research, is needed replication of this concept of research with different subjects in a larger population. Also, it is recommended to investigate the effects of massage with aroma therapy for the berefit of decreasing womens' stress level further.