Van Dijk, Willeke and Huizink, Anja C. and Muller, Jasmin and Uvnäs-Moberg, Kerstin and Ekstrom-Bergstrom, Anette and Handlin, Linda
(2020).
The Effect of Mechanical Massage and Mental Training on Heart Rate Variability and Cortisol in Swedish Employees-A Randomized Explorative Pilot Study.
Frontiers in Public Health. 8
, 82
, 1-7
[Research article]
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- Published Version
Available under License Creative Commons Attribution. 3MB |
Abstract
Work-related stress is relatively common in modern society and is a major cause of sick-leave. Thus, effective stress reducing interventions are needed. This study examined the effects of mental training and mechanical massage, on employee's heart rate variability (HRV) and plasma cortisol at their workplaces. Moreover, it was investigated whether baseline systolic blood pressure (SBP) can explain differences in effectiveness of the intervention. Ninety-three participants from four workplaces were randomly assigned to one of the five programs: (I) Mechanical massage and mental training combined, II) Mechanical massage, III) Mental training, IV) Pause, or V) Control. HRV and plasma cortisol were measured at baseline and after 4 and 8 weeks. SBP was measured at baseline. On the reduction of cortisol levels, a small effect of the mechanical massage program was found, whereas no effect was found for the other programs. None of the programs showed any effect on HRV. Nonetheless, when the level of systolic blood pressure was taken into account, some small beneficial effects on HRV and cortisol of mental training and the mechanical massage were found. This exploratory pilot-study provides useful information for future studies that aim to reduce stress among employees.
Authors/Creators: | Van Dijk, Willeke and Huizink, Anja C. and Muller, Jasmin and Uvnäs-Moberg, Kerstin and Ekstrom-Bergstrom, Anette and Handlin, Linda | ||||||
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Title: | The Effect of Mechanical Massage and Mental Training on Heart Rate Variability and Cortisol in Swedish Employees-A Randomized Explorative Pilot Study | ||||||
Series Name/Journal: | Frontiers in Public Health | ||||||
Year of publishing : | 2020 | ||||||
Volume: | 8 | ||||||
Article number: | 82 | ||||||
Number of Pages: | 7 | ||||||
Publisher: | Frontiers | ||||||
ISSN: | 2296-2565 | ||||||
Language: | English | ||||||
Publication Type: | Research article | ||||||
Article category: | Scientific peer reviewed | ||||||
Version: | Published version | ||||||
Copyright: | Creative Commons: Attribution 4.0 | ||||||
Full Text Status: | Public | ||||||
Subjects: | (A) Swedish standard research categories 2011 > 3 Medical and Health Sciences > 303 Health Sciences > Environmental Health and Occupational Health | ||||||
Keywords: | stress, mental training, heart rate variability, cortisol, systolic blood pressure, mechanical massage | ||||||
URN:NBN: | urn:nbn:se:slu:epsilon-p-105385 | ||||||
Permanent URL: | http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:slu:epsilon-p-105385 | ||||||
Additional ID: |
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ID Code: | 16974 | ||||||
Faculty: | VH - Faculty of Veterinary Medicine and Animal Science | ||||||
Department: | (VH) > Dept. of Animal Environment and Health | ||||||
Deposited By: | SLUpub Connector | ||||||
Deposited On: | 03 Jun 2020 07:14 | ||||||
Metadata Last Modified: | 15 Jan 2021 19:47 |
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