Children with Cancer and Blood Diseases Experience Positive Physical and Psychological Effects from Massage Therapy
Bibliographic record
Abstract
BACKGROUND: Previous research has shown positive effects from massage therapy (MT) for premature infants and for children with asthma, arthritis, and other illnesses. Although these effects have been demonstrated, MT research on children with cancer and blood disease is needed. PURPOSE AND SETTING: The present study, conducted at the Cancer Center, Shands Hospital, at the University of Florida, Gainesville, measured the physical and psychological effects of MT on pediatric oncology and hematology patients. The participants were 30 children with cancer or blood disease, ages 6 months to 17 years. RESEARCH DESIGN: This randomized, non-blinded prospective study used measures of physical health and mental wellbeing that were completed before, during, and after four MT sessions were implemented. Descriptive statistics, one-way between-subjects analysis of variance, and an independent-samples t-test were used to analyze the data. INTERVENTION: The treatment group received 20-minute sessions of Swedish MT once daily for approximately 4 days (inpatients), or once weekly for approximately 4 weeks (outpatients); the control group received no MT. RESULTS: Between-groups analyses indicated significant psychological improvements for the MT group on state anxiety (F(1,58) = 16.79, p < 0.000), trait anxiety (F(1,58) = 3.95, p < 0.000), and emotional state (F(1,238) = 42.39, p < 0.001)]. Between-groups analyses indicated significant physical improvements for the MT group on muscle soreness (F(1,238) = 38.96, p < 0.001), discomfort (F(1,238) = 50.16, p < 0.001), respiratory rate (F(1,237) = 22.47, p < 0.000)], and overall progress (t(28) = 25.55, p < 0.000). No significant differences were found between groups on parent-completed ratings of their child's physical or psychological health, pulse rate, or blood pressure. CONCLUSIONS: In children with cancer and blood diseases, MT can reduce psychological and physical distress and can have a positive effect on quality of life.
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How this classification was reachedexpand
Full frame machine prediction
Teacher imitationNot calibrated prevalence, not ground truth. Human validation pending. The Gemma side is a direct model label for every work in the frame, read from the title-only record. The Codex side is a classifier learned from the 10,348 direct Codex labels and calibrated to design-weighted sample rates; fields without enough sample support carry no Codex call. Candidate is the union of the two sides; consensus is their intersection. These outputs are machine_predicted_unvalidated and are not human labels.
Distilled classifier scores by category (both heads)
| Category | Codex | Gemma |
|---|---|---|
| Metaresearch | 0.001 | 0.002 |
| Meta-epidemiology (narrow) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Meta-epidemiology (broad) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Bibliometrics | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Science and technology studies | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Scholarly communication | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Open science | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Research integrity | 0.000 | 0.001 |
| Insufficient payload (model declined to judge) | 0.002 | 0.000 |
Machine scores (provisional)
The two teacher heads of the student model, read on this work. A score orders the frame for review; it never asserts a category, and the validation status ships verbatim with every row.
Baseline scores from an immature model (maturity gate not passed, 7 training rounds). Scores rank; they never assert a category.
score_only:v0-immature-baseline · verbatim from the scoring run: score_only means the number may rank works, and no category label ships from itClassification
machine, unvalidatedMachine predicted; a candidate call from one source (direct Gemma or distilled Codex), not a consensus.
How this classification was reached, model by model and score by score, is at the end of the page under "How this classification was reached".