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ªï∑’Ë 11 ©∫—∫∑’Ë 2 情¿“§¡- ‘ßÀ“§¡ 2556 Vol. 11 No. 2 May-August 2013

π‘æπ∏åμâπ©∫—∫

The Efficacy of Thai Massage in Relieving

Low Back Pain among Pregnant Women

in the Third Trimester

Thanaporn Issarata*
Orawan Lekskulchai**
*Graduate Program in Applied Thai Traditional Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, Thammasat University, Patum Thani 12121
**Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Faculty of Medicine, Thammasat University, Patum Thani 12121
Coressponding author:mania_j3@hotmail.com

Abstract
Objective: To determine the efficacy of the Thai massage in relieving low back pain among
women in the third trimester of pregnancy and study of correlation between lordosis scale and
low back pain score Methods: 62 pregnant women, aged 20-35 years, with the gestational age of
34 weeks or more, were recruited to participate in the study. They were equally separated into
two groups by randomization. The first group, the massage group, received Thai massage therapy.
The second group (control group) was treated by taking a rest (lying down and sleeping). The
women in both groups had their group specific intervention once a week for 3 weeks. The paired
t-test and the independent t-test were used for within and between the group comparisons.
Results: At the end of the study, 59 women, 29 in massage group and 30 in control group
completed all the sessions. The efficacy of Thai massage between the two groups showed a statis-
tically significant difference (p<0.05). The mean of the decreases in pre- and post-massage pain
scores in the massage group was greater than that in the control group. However, there was no
difference in the pre- and post-lordosis scales in both groups. In both groups, the means of the
impacts on quality of life scores of the women decreased significantly at the end of the study
(p<0.05). There was no severe side effect reported except only mild bruises in the massage group
which disappeared in 1 or 2 days.
Conclusion: Thai massage therapy can relieve low back pain in the third trimester of preg-
nancy better than taking rest (lying down and sleeping). The pain scores before getting massage
after each visit tends to decline continuously.
Key words: Thai massage; low back pain; third trimester of pregnancy

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