Last week we wrote about how office massage therapy can help reverse postural problems and the pain associated with them. While there is research that has been done showing that massage therapy can help in many different areas (relieving stress, reducing pain, etc.) it’s always nice to read up on studies that show effective massage therapy in action.
MassageMag has published two such articles demonstrating the effectiveness of office massage in improving employee health. The first is from research originally published in 2007 by MassageMag demonstrating a reduction in levels of stress among a group of nurses who received regular, 15-minute back massages once a week.
The second article concentrates on an office massage therapy program at Boeing that has had demonstrated success among participating employees. Indeed, employees surveyed reported an average drop in pain levels of 30 percent, and the company has reported much improved rates of employees returning to work from injury.
With pain costing companies more than half-a-billion dollars in employee healthcare costs annually in lost productivity and missed days (click here), providing a 15-minute massage per employee as part of a corporate wellness program – or as a stand-alone program – would seem like a valuable move.