• Hunter Groninger, Donya Nemati, Cal Cates, Kerry Jordan, Anne Kelemen, Gianna Shipp, and Niki Munk.
• Georgetown University Medical Center/MedStar Health (H.G., A.K.) Washington, District of Columbia, USA. Electronic address: hunter.groninger@medstar.net.
• J Pain Symptom Manage. 2023 May 1; 65 (5): 428441428-441.

ContextMassage therapy is increasingly used in palliative settings to improve quality of life (QoL) and symptom burden; however, the optimal massage "dosage" remains unclear.ObjectivesTo compare three massage dosing strategies among inpatients receiving palliative care consultation.MethodsAt an urban academic hospital, we conducted a three-armed randomized trial examining three different doses of therapist-applied massage to test change in overall QoL and symptoms among hospitalized adult patients receiving palliative care consultation for any indication (Arm I: 10-min massage daily × 3 days; Arm II: 20-min massage daily × 3 days; Arm III: single 20-min massage). Primary outcome measure was single-item McGill QoL question. Secondary outcomes measured pain/symptoms, rating of peacefulness, and satisfaction with intervention. Data were collected at baseline, pre- and post-treatment, and one-day postlast treatment (follow-up). Repeated measure analysis of variance and paired t-test were used to determine significant differences.ResultsTotal n = 387 patients were 55.7 (±15.49) years old, mostly women (61.2%) and African-American (65.6%). All three arms demonstrated within-group improvement at follow-up for McGill QoL (all P < 0.05). No significant between-group differences were found. Finally, repeated measure analyses demonstrated time to predict immediate improvement in distress (P ≤ 0.003) and pain (P ≤ 0.02) for all study arms; however, only improvement in distress sustained at follow-up measurement in arms with three consecutive daily massages of 10 or 20 minutes.ConclusionMassage therapy in complex patients with advanced illness was beneficial beyond dosage. Findings support session length (10 or 20 minutes) was predictive of short-term improvements while treatment frequency (once or three consecutive days) predicted sustained improvement at follow-up.Copyright © 2023 American Academy of Hospice and Palliative Medicine. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

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