Related Experiment Video
Updated: Jun 15, 2025
Manual Therapy for a Chronic Non-Specific Low Back Pain Rat Model
Published on: August 11, 2023
The Prevalence of Massage Therapy Utilization for Musculoskeletal Conditions: A Systematic Review
Suzy Ladanyi1, Jon Adams2, David Sibbritt2
1School of Nursing and Midwifery, Faculty of Health, University of Technology Sydney, Sydney, NSW, Australia.
Background:
Massage therapy is a popular treatment for musculoskeletal conditions globally. As the efficacy for massage therapy grows over time, it is becoming a more acceptable form of therapy alongside conventional medicine. The aim of this systematic review is to highlight the prevalence of massage therapy utilization specifically for the treatment of musculoskeletal conditions.
Methods:
A comprehensive search of health databases using keywords mapped to massage and musculoskeletal conditions identified 38 studies. An assessment of the quality of these studies was undertaken using a validated quality appraisal instrument.
Results:
Overall, the prevalence of massage use ranged from 2% to 81.2%. The range narrowed marginally from 2.2% to 56% in larger studies (n ≥ 1,000). Prevalence was higher among younger individuals, ranging from 12% to 56%. The prevalence of use among women ranged from 7.7% to 56%. The highest prevalence for conditions was for lower back pain/back pain, ranging from 10.5% to 68.1%, and for patients with chronic pain, ranging from 17.6% to 56%. The lowest prevalence was reported in Australia, ranging from 2% to 56%, and the highest in North America, from 2.2% to 81.2%.
Conclusions:
Our findings indicate that 74% of studies in this review relating to prevalence of massage therapy utilization for musculoskeletal conditions are reported within studies focusing on complementary medicine more generally. Further studies on massage as an independent treatment modality would be useful to provide improved evidence on prevalence for massage use for musculoskeletal conditions. While the range of prevalence reported here is wide, inpatients and outpatients with specific musculoskeletal conditions including pain are high users of massage therapy. Despite the growing interest in research, there is a gap in the literature around men and their use of massage therapy. Further high-quality research in these areas will better inform the knowledge base around these participant cohorts.
