Acute Effect of Foot Reflexology Massage on Heart Rate Variability and Arterial Pulse Waveform

Effects of Foot Reflexology Massage on Heart Rate Variability and Arterial Pulse Waveform After Yo Yo Intermittent Recovery Test and Repeated Sprint Test

Foot reflexology treatment provides acute and chronic effects on cardiovascular and hemodynamic functions. However, no information is available to us in regarding the treatment effect of foot reflexology after exercise. This study investigated the acute effect of foot reflexology treatment on heart rate variability after anaerobic-based and aerobic-based intermittent exercises.

Study Overview

• Status: Completed
• Conditions: Aerobic Exercise; Massage; Anaerobic Exercise
• Intervention / Treatment: Other: Foot reflexology massage

Detailed Description

The sympathetic activation and sympathy-vagal balance after repeat sprint performance can be immediately modulated by foot reflexology massage. The acute benefits of foot reflexology intervention on cardiac sympathovagal balance can be considered as exercise recovery strategies in sports.

• Study Type: Interventional
• Enrollment (Actual): 28
• Phase: Not Applicable

Participation Criteria

Eligibility Criteria

• Ages Eligible for Study: 18 years to 30 years (Adult)
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers: No
• Genders Eligible for Study: Male

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

• Undertake football/futsal training at least 3 times a week
• Age between 18 and 30 years old

Exclusion Criteria:

• History of severe neuromuscular injury
• Current lower extremity injury
• Current neurological diseases

Study Plan

How is the study designed?

Design Details

• Primary Purpose: Basic Science
• Allocation: Randomized
• Interventional Model: Parallel Assignment
• Masking: None (Open Label)

Number of Arms

2

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm	Intervention / Treatment
Experimental: Foot reflexology massage group; The duration of intervention was 30 min (15 min massage duration for each leg)	Other: Foot reflexology massage; Foot reflexology technique of Father Josef was used as massage intervention
No Intervention: Control group; Rest for 30 min

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Heart rate variability	15 minutes resting electrocardiographic record at baseline and post-intervention phase	immediately following intervention phase

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Arterial pulse waveform	15 minutes resting arterial plethysmographic waveform at baseline and post-intervention phase	immediately following intervention phase

Collaborators and Investigators

• Sponsor: University of Taipei

Study record dates

Study Major Dates

• Study Start (Actual): December 22, 2016
• Primary Completion (Actual): June 13, 2017
• Study Completion (Actual): June 13, 2017

Study Registration Dates

• First Submitted: January 22, 2019
• First Submitted That Met QC Criteria: January 26, 2019
• First Posted (Actual): January 30, 2019

Study Record Updates

• Last Update Posted (Actual): January 30, 2019
• Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria: January 26, 2019
• Last Verified: January 1, 2019

More Information

Terms related to this study

• Keywords: Heart rate variability; Arterial pulse waveform
• Other Study ID Numbers: UT-IRB-2016-017

Plan for Individual participant data (IPD)

• Plan to Share Individual Participant Data (IPD)?: No
• IPD Plan Description: Individual participant data is protected by IRB application with a minimum of 3 years data storage.

Drug and device information, study documents

• Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated drug product: No
• Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated device product: No