A community-based survey on massage therapy in Saudi Arabia

ABSTRACT

Massage therapy (MT) is the physical manipulation of the soft tissues. It primarily consists of manual orhands-on techniques such as applying fixed or movable pressure, holding, and moving muscles and bodytissues. MT is beneficial for pain relief, sport-related injury rehabilitation, stress reduction, and to addresspsychological disorders. MT is the most prevalent form of complementary and alternative (CAM) therapyworldwide. The aim of this study was to evaluate the knowledge, attitudes, and perceptions regardingMT among the Saudi community. A cross-sectional online survey using WhatsApp©, Google Forms©,Facebook©, and Twitter© was conducted among the general community of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia(KSA) to assess the knowledge, attitudes, and perceptions regarding MT. Data was collected using a 20-item, self-administered questionnaire consisting of a series of both closed-ended and Likert-typequestions. A total of 436 respondents completed the survey. Most of the respondents were female84.2% (n ¼ 367). Approximately 65% resided in the central region of KSA. The majority of the respondents, 81.4%, believed that MT is effective, 27.7% thought that MT leads to complications, and morethan half of the residents, 55.7%, believed that patients should consult with their physicians prior to MT.The most common reasons for MT were to treat muscle pain, for relaxation purposes, to treat bone andjoint pain, and backache relief, which were reported by 49%, 20%, 19%, and 16% of the participants,respectively. The knowledge, attitudes, and perceptions of the Saudi population towards MT are insufficient in some aspects. The establishment of community-based health education programs to improveknowledge of MT is recommended.© 2019 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V. on behalf of Institute of Transdisciplinary Health Sciencesand Technology and World Ayurveda Foundation. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-NDlicense (http//creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).