Effects of a massage therapy program on the physical-emotional well-being of staff members of the Adventist University of Chile

Abstract

Stress and poor posture are pathological manifestations that disturb health and affect daily work life. This problem is particularly relevant among the employees of the Universidad Adventista de Chile, since its repercussions are not limited to the work environment, but also extend to the personal level. The purpose of the study was to evaluate the effect of a massage therapy program on the physical and emotional well-being of employees of the Adventist University of Chile in a situation of stress and/or poor posture. The participants were employees of the institution who voluntarily attended the open call for the Complementary Massage Therapy Workshop ‘People taking care of People’. The intervention involved a mixed work, applying the visual analog scale and unstructured interviews to the beneficiaries, with a longitudinal design, and duration of 8 weeks, being non-experimental. The program turned out to be positive, as the intervention was multifocal, the participants had adherence throughout the intervention, and reported benefits in their physical-emotional health, such as: improvement of sleep, abandonment of sleeping pills, feeling of rest, reduction of localized and generalized muscle tension, reduction of back and headaches, feeling of tranquility, improvement in standing and sitting posture, among others of relevance. In conclusion, this type of integral intervention favors the state of health of the participants, promotes adherence to treatment and improves movement performance in working conditions and in daily life. Therefore, it is recommended the implementation of the program in conditions of greater convocation and amplitude.