The effectiveness of foot massage designed to stabilize and improve the lower extremity function of community-dwelling elderly people

2017 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 26671015
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Challenging Exploratory Research
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Research Field: Gerontological nursing
• Research Institution: Saitama Prefectural University
• Principal Investigator: SATO REIKO 埼玉県立大学, 保健医療福祉学部, 准教授 (00255960)
• Project Period (FY): 2014-04-01 – 2018-03-31
• Keywords: 地域在住高齢者 / 足肢 / セルフケア / 安楽 / マッサージ / 足底圧

Outline of Final Research Achievements

As elderly people age they become increasingly aware of shoulder and low back pain, and deteriorating ability to perform physical movements. Thus, I conducted a research applying a type of massage to the lower extremities of community-dwelling elderly people, which is relaxing and makes the health management of elderly people easier in order to determine if it reduces and alleviates pain and improves the stability of the feet. The results indicated that approximately 83% of community-dwelling elderly people have problems with their feet. As a result of the researcher performing manual massage on the lower extremities of the community-dwelling elderly people, the elderly people showed improvement in their mood. In addition, plantar pressure measurements of the community-dwelling elderly people taken after the massage shows that their standing position had become more stable, with little movement of their central pressure axis while standing.

Free Research Field

地域看護学