Trial reportFrontiers in public health2020
The Effect of Mechanical Massage and Mental Training on Heart Rate Variability and Cortisol in Swedish Employees-A Randomized Explorative Pilot Study.
Trial report in Frontiers in public health, 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 8 papers.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
8 citing papers in PubMed, 15 citations in OpenAlex.
- The clinical effect of an electric massage chair on chemotherapy-induced nausea and vomiting in cancer patients: randomized phase II cross-over trial.BMC complementary medicine and therapies · 2024Trial
- Mechano responsiveness of neuroimmune cross-talk in bone and joints: A narrative review with implications for force-based manipulations.Musculoskeletal science & practice · 2026Review
- A health resort-based intervention reduces insomnia with minimal changes in quality of life in COVID-19 survivors and non-COVID-19 controls.Frontiers in public health · 2026Article
- Taking heart rate variability to the next level in sports: towards a multi-signal integration.Frontiers in sports and active living · 2026Article
- Recharging Healthcare Professionals: A Randomized Controlled Trial on the Impact of Automated Massage Chairs on Depression, Anxiety, Stress, Musculoskeletal Pain, and Biochemical Markers.Health science reports · 2025Article
- The Impact of Relaxation Massage Prior to Bedtime on Sleep Quality and Quantity in People with Symptoms of Chronic Insomnia: A Home-Based Sleep Study.Healthcare (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Article
- The quality enhancement of action research on primary school English instruction in Chinese rural areas: An analysis based on multimodality.Frontiers in psychology · 2022Article
- Active break program: an evidence- based review for the promotion of occupational health.Revista brasileira de medicina do trabalho : publicacao oficial da Associacao Nacional de Medicina do Trabalho-ANAMTReview
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
6 authors at 4 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
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.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.