Volunteers needed for massage therapy study
October 2009
Dr. JoEllen Sefton invites healthy adults, age 55 to 75, to participate in a study entitled, "Effect of Massage Therapy on Postural Control in Older Persons.'' Sefton received a $30,000 grant from the Massage Therapy Foundation
 to facilitate the study, which will examine the ways in which massage therapy influences the physical well-being of older adults.
Men and women interested in volunteering are encouraged to contact Sefton at (334) 844-1694 or via e-mail at jms0018@auburn.edu.
All volunteers will be paid and/or receive free massages for their participation in each stage of the study, which will be conducted in the Neuromechanics Research Laboratory inside Beard-Eaves-Memorial Coliseum. Volunteers will be placed at random into either the treatment or control group. The control comes in for an initial test with a follow-up scheduled for six weeks later. The first and final days of testing will last approximately four hours. Members of the treatment group will come in for the initial testing, then once a week for six weeks to receive massage treatments. They will then complete the follow-up testing.
Volunteers who come to the lab but do not receive a massage will be paid $20 each trip for their time.
Sefton, an assistant professor and director of the Neuromechanics Research Laboratory and the Post-Certification Graduate Athletic Training Program, focuses much of her research on how the neuromuscular system responds to injury, rehabilitation and therapy. A national certified massage therapist for 15 years, Sefton will use the study of massage therapy and its effects on the postural control of older adults to assess how the treatment also influences heart rate, balance, spinal responses and blood pressure.
Since falls often lead to severe injuries for older men and women, understanding how massage therapy influences postural control and how it can be incorporated as a non-pharmacological treatment to improve stability may ultimately lead to the reduction of such accidents.
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