Effect of Massage Therapy in a Multisensory Environment for Intellectual Disabilities

Summary

The aim of this study is to evaluate the effectiveness of multisensory environment (MSE) and/or massage therapy (MT) in residents with severe and profound intellectual disabilities (ID) who received massage therapy in MSE, activities in MSE alone, massage therapy in usual care environment, or usual care with attention.

Since there has not yet been any conclusive evidence to show the clinical efficacy of MT and MSE on relaxation and reducing challenging behaviours, the following null hypotheses are suggested:

1. There will not be any differences on reducing heart and respiration rates between MT-MSE, MT, MSE, and usual care only over the 10-week intervention period and a 2-week follow-up.
2. There will not be any differences on adaptive behaviours and levels of alertness between MT-MSE, MT, MSE, and control group over the 10-week intervention period and a 2-week follow-up.
3. There will not be any differences on frequency and severity of challenging behaviours between MT-MSE, MT, MSE, and control group over the 10-week intervention period and a 2-week follow-up.

Conditions

• Behavior Disturbance
• Muscle Hypotonia

Interventions

BEHAVIORAL

Multisensory environment (MSE)

Participants are staying in multisensory environment (MSE only) for 30 minutes in each session, and twice per week for 10 weeks. An enabler stays with the participant throughout the session.

BEHAVIORAL

Massage therapy (MT)

A trained massage therapist provides 15 minutes massage therapy (MT) to the participants, twice a week for 10 weeks. The massage therapist acts as an enabler.

OTHER

Control group

Usual residential care will be given to these participants. Only attention and social interactions from the enabler will be provided.

BEHAVIORAL

Massage therapy in multisensory environment (MT-MSE)

Participants receive 15 minutes massage therapy while staying in multisensory environment for 30 minutes, twice a week for 10 weeks.

Sponsors & Collaborators

• The Hong Kong Polytechnic University

  lead OTHER

Principal Investigators

• Wai Tong CHIEN, PhD · The Hong Kong Polytechnic University

Study Design

Allocation

RANDOMIZED

Purpose

HEALTH_SERVICES_RESEARCH

Masking

SINGLE

Model

PARALLEL

Eligibility

Min Age

18 Years

Max Age

64 Years

Sex

ALL

Healthy Volunteers

No

Timeline & Regulatory

Start

2013-04-15

Primary Completion

2017-06-30

Completion

2017-07-31

Countries

• Hong Kong

Study Locations