Complementary Therapies in Clinical Practice 23 (2016) 117e124

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Complementary Therapies in Clinical Practice

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/ctcp

A pilot randomised controlled trial (RCT) investigating the

effectiveness of reexology for managing pregnancy low back and/or
pelvic pain
Ciara Close a, *, Marlene Sinclair a, Julie Mc Cullough b, Dianne Liddle b, Ciara Hughes b
a
Maternal, Fetal and Infant Research Centre, University of Ulster, Jordanstown, Shore Road, Belfast BT 37 0QB, Northern Ireland, UK
b
School of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences, University of Ulster, Jordanstown, Shore Road, Belfast BT 37 0QB, Northern Ireland, UK

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: Many pregnant women with low back and/or pelvic pain (LBPP) use pain medications to manage this
Received 3 April 2015 pain, much of which is self-prescribed and potentially harmful. Therefore, there is a need to nd
Received in revised form effective nonpharmacological treatments for the condition. Reexology has previously been shown to
7 May 2015
help nonspecic low back pain. Therefore; a pilot RCT was conducted investigating reexology in the
Accepted 7 May 2015
management of pregnancy-LBPP. 90 primiparous women were randomised to either usual care, a
reexology or footbath intervention. Primary outcome measures were; the Pain Visual Analogue Scale
Keywords:
(VAS). 64 women completed the RCT; retention rates for the reexology group were 80%, usual care
Reexology
Low back pain
group 83.33% and footbath group 50%. The reexology group demonstrated a Clinically Important
Pelvic pain Change (CIC) in pain frequency (1.64 cm). Results indicate it is feasible to conduct an RCT in this area,
Pregnancy although a footbath is an unsuitable sham treatment. Reexology may help manage pregnancy-LBPP;
Randomised controlled trial however a fully powered trial is needed to conrm this.
2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction pregnant women are recommended to avoid pain medications

where possible and advised only to use medications under health
Low back pain is typically experienced by over two thirds of professional supervision. In this survey it was revealed that opiates
pregnant women and pelvic pain by almost one fth [1]. Low back were among the most frequently used pain medications for
and/or pelvic pain (LBPP) can have signicant consequences on pregnancy-LBPP, even though these drugs have been shown to have
women's health and well-being, affecting their ability to walk, specic risks to the health of the mother such as dependence as
sleep, work and increasing their risk of depression [2e4]. well as increasing the risk of spina bida for the baby [7,8]. These
Low back and pelvic pain are frequently considered together due ndings suggest the need for more research into potential non-
to pregnant women's inability to distinguish between the two and pharmacological management strategies for pregnancy -LBPP.
the limited clinical tests available for health professionals to Complementary and Alternative Medicine (CAM) is popular
distinguish between them [5]. Currently, there is no clinical with pregnant women for managing a range of pregnancy ailments
guideline for managing the problem and this has led to pregnant including LBPP. Pregnant women report various reasons for making
women using a wide range of treatment strategies, some of which their decision to use CAM these include; a desire to increase control
may pose health risks to the fetus. A recent survey indicated that over the child bearing experience and the belief that these treat-
most women with pregnancy-LBPP use pain medications much of ments offer a safer alternative to pharmacological treatments
which is self-prescribed [6]. This is concerning particularly as [9,10]. Pregnant women's belief in these treatments is evident in
the fact that the majority of CAM is self-funded with only a few
maternity hospitals offering such provisions. There are many forms
of CAM which pregnant women chose to use, popular choices
* Corresponding author. include osteopathy, chiropractic and reexology [6]. Despite the
E-mail addresses: [email protected] (C. Close), [email protected]. popularity of CAM and its use for pregnancy LBPP, research into the
uk (M. Sinclair), [email protected] (J.M. Cullough), sd.liddle@
use of CAM for managing pregnancy-LBPP is restricted. A recent
ulster.ac.uk (D. Liddle), [email protected] (C. Hughes).

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ctcp.2015.05.002
1744-3881/ 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
118 C. Close et al. / Complementary Therapies in Clinical Practice 23 (2016) 117e124

systematic review on CAM in the management of pregnancy- LBPP 2.2. Recruitment

found limited evidence to support CAM use for this pregnancy
complaint, due to lack of available studies in the area, studies with Women were recruited from ante-natal clinics in the Ulster
small sample sizes and other methodological issues [11]. This re- Maternity Unit, in Northern Ireland between July 2012 and
view identied a small number of studies using acupuncture, September 2013 which has an annual birth rate of approximately
osteopathy and chiropractic treatments but none on reexology. 4000. Women meeting the inclusion criteria were identied by the
Reexology is a CAM therapy which can be dened as: midwife, at 20e22 weeks gestation when they attended for a foetal
The use of a sophisticated system of touch, usually on the feet anomaly scan. The LBPP inclusion criterion was applied later as
..in which the area being massaged is thought to correspond to a participation didn't begin until a later gestation. Therefore, women
map of the whole body, [12]. were invited to take part in the RCT at 20e22 weeks irrespective of
Despite the fact that reexology has not been investigated for whether they had LBPP at this time point or not. Inviting women
managing pregnancy LBPP it has been reported to be a popular even if they did not have LBPP was seen as an important way to
choice of CAM for pregnant women. Further to this, of the few ensure that all eligible women could participate in the study, given
maternity hospitals in the United Kingdom which offer CAM that it was possible for women to develop LBPP between the initial
treatments for pregnancy complaints reexology is one of the most invitation to participate (20e22 weeks) and active participation in
frequently provided treatments [6,13]. the RCT (26e29weeks). Only inviting women who had LBPP at
Furthermore, there is evidence of effectiveness for reexology 20e22weeks could have severely reduced recruitment to this study
for managing non-specic low back pain (LBP) [14,15]. A pilot RCT and given that the average number of week's gestation at the time
of 15 adults, with LBP randomised to reexology or sham reex- of onset of pregnancy-LBPP has been reported to be 22 weeks,
ology found a median reduction of 1.9 cm on the pain VAS in the many women may not have been experiencing LBPP at 20e22
reexology group compared to an increase of 0.1 cm in the sham weeks when they were initially invited to participate in the RCT but
group at the end of the intervention [14]. In a double blind RCT may have developed this pain later in their pregnancy [16].
randomising 50 female and male nurses with LBP to a reexology or At the initial recruitment point women were provided with a
non-specic massage intervention found that those in the reex- verbal overview, patient information sheet and consent form by the
ology group had a signicantly higher reduction in the intensity of researcher. Interested women contacted the researcher before 29
their pain compared to those in the non-specic massage group weeks gestation and were screened for eligibility over the tele-
[15]. phone by the researcher.
The evidence of effectiveness for reexology in managing non-
specic LBP, its non-pharmacological nature combined with the 2.3. Randomisation
popularity of this treatment in the pregnant population indicated
potential merit in researching this treatment for pregnancy- LBPP. At 26e29 weeks gestation women attended the hospital for
Therefore, this study set out to determine if it was possible to their rst study appointment, completing baseline outcome mea-
conduct an RCT investigating the effectiveness of reexology as an sures (OM's), a paper-based physiotherapy questionnaire, and uri-
addition to usual care for pregnancy LBPP. The study objectives nalysis. Before randomisation participants indicated expectations
were to investigate recruitment, compliance and retention rates of helpfulness for reexology and footbaths for reducing
along with the logistics of providing the interventions in a mater- pregnancy-LBPP. Women were then given a sequentially, numbered
nity setting and the sensitivity of the outcomes measures (OM's) to opaque sealed, envelope containing details of their group alloca-
detect changes. tion. The randomization schedule was drawn up using computer
generated block randomization before study commencement by an
independent statistician. To conceal the intervention under inves-
2. Materials and methods tigation the research study was referred to as The CAM in Preg-
nancy Trial.
2.1. Inclusion/exclusion criteria Women in the study continued to receive the usual care for
pregnancy-LBPP provided within the maternity unit. Usual care
Ethical approval was received from the Ofce of Research Ethics participants received no additional intervention during the study;
Northern Ireland in July 2012 (reference number 12/NI/0052). however they were offered a free reexology treatment after the
Table 1 shows study inclusion and exclusion criteria (next page). study period.

Table 1
RCT inclusion and exclusion criteria.

Inclusion criteria Exclusion criteria

First time pregnant women Women pregnant with more than one baby

18 years of age Smokers
Presence of low back pain and/or pelvic pain Women with neurological diseases
(assessed prior to active participation)
26-29 weeks gestation Deep Vein Thrombosis (DVT) sufferers
Able to understand written and verbal English Fungal foot infections or verrucae
Currently using CAM therapies
Placenta Previa Grade 3 or 4
Already participating in a research study
Any serious spinal pathology e.g. cancer, Cauda Equina, infection in the spine?
Previous road trafc accident
Previous surgery to the hip, back or pelvic region
Inammatory arthritis
Diabetes/Gestational diabetes
Cardiac related problems
Women whom the midwife deems unable to participate
 C. Close et al. / Complementary Therapies in Clinical Practice 23 (2016) 117e124 119

2.4. Interventions Table 2

The reexology protocol.

This RCT had three different groups, a reexology group, a 1 Greet the feet and visual inspection
footbath group and a usual care group. Footbath and reexology 2 Gentle heel/leg stretch
participants received a 30 min treatment weekly, for six weeks. The 3 Oil feet and massage right then left foot using efeurage and
stroking
same music, lighting and location in the hospital were used for both 4 Cover left foot and begin reexology on right foot rst as
treatments. follows
Footbaths were based on a similar regimen used in a study 5 Ankle rotations
investigating the effectiveness of footbaths on fatigue and insomnia 6 Ankle and lower leg massage-musculature of thigh and
pelvis
in cancer patients [17]. Footbaths consisted of the feet being sub-
7 Spinal stretch
emerged in a footbath while the participant sat upright in a 8 Caterpillar walk from kidney to bladder
padded chair using cushions to support their neck and back. The 9 Open up ribs; tops of feet by applying pressure with the
footbath simply contained some coloured stones for aesthetic length of the thumbs side by side and spreading apart
purposes and water only, which was lled up to ankle level and 10 Open up lungs-soles of feet
11 Toe tweaks and toe rotations- stimulation of head and neck
maintained at approximately 41. This was done by the researcher 12 Thumb press in stripes on big toe pad
probing the water with a thermometer at 10 min intervals and 13 Wring the foot by grasping the foot in both hand and gently
topping it up accordingly. The footbaths were performed by one of imitate a wringing action
two researchers adhering to the same regimen throughout. 14 Scrape, using the crooked index nger, across neck reex
15 Caterpillar and stimulation of reexes from head to coccyx
Reexology treatments were performed by a qualied maternity
16 Sedation of lower back reex
reexologist based primarily on the work of Sue Enzer and Denise 17 Sedate symphysis pubis reex-around ankle bone on inside
Tiran following a pragmatic approach focusing on the key reex of feet
points corresponding to the back or pelvis [18,19]. Reexology 18 Caterpillar and sedate reexes of bones and muscles of
treatments were completed in a supine position at an approximate pelvis and pelvic oor- around edge of heels
19 Caterpillar across and down pelvic region reex on gross
30 angle with a pillow supporting the neck. Table 2 outlines the heel
steps of the reexology protocol. 20 Sedate black holes symphysis pubis reex on top of foot
21 Sedate sacroiliac joint reex-posterior to ankle bone on
2.5. Outcome measures outside of feet
22 Caterpillar up leg and thigh reexes
23 Pressures to knee and elbow reexes
At the initial and nal study appointment women completed 24 Caterpillar up arm, shoulder and scapula reexes
primary and secondary OM's. The primary OM's were the pain Vi- 25 Caterpillar across trapezium reexes
sual Analogue Scale (VAS) for intensity and frequency of LBPP. 26 Pressures to jaw and teeth reexes
Secondary OM's included; the Roland Morris Disability Question- 27 Gently efeurage to breast reex on top of foot
28 Stimulation of abdominal musculature reexes-backwards
naire (RMDQ) the Pregnancy Mobility Index (PMI) and the S-sub- of rib area on tops of feet
scale of the State Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI). Treatment 29 Gentle caterpillar across stomach, duodenum and pancreas,
expectations and treatment helpfulness were also assessed on a 0- where the participant has indicated that they have
10 VAS scale, 0 no help at all and 10 very helpful. heartburn use gentle sedation to these reexes.
30 Caterpillar along bowel reex
At treatments, reexology and footbath participants were
31 Gentle pressure to liver and gallbladder reexes (right foot)
questioned about interventions used in the past week for managing and heart and spleen (left foot)
LBPP and completed the VAS for pain intensity and frequency. Usual 32 Wring foot
care participants completed the VAS questionnaires weekly at 33 Massage foot using efeurage strokes
home and kept diary of the treatments used to manage their LBPP. 34 Lymphatic drainage using ling owing ngertip pressure
from lower leg to toes
Text messages were send throughout the study to remind this 35 Simultaneous diaphragm hold until energy is felt and
group to complete study paperwork. sweep, repeat three times
Step number Outline of step
2.6. Focus groups 36 Simultaneous solar plexus hold
37 Gentle hold over uterus reex with cupped hands
38 Efeurage from ankle to toe
Focus groups were conducted as an additional part of this 39 Towel feet and stroke over
research with participants of the RCT complying with the protocol, 40 Hold feet gently and release
full details are reported elsewhere [20]. The focus groups primary
aim was exploring women's experiences of pregnancy- LBPP.
only including frequencies, means and standard deviations.
However, additional questions were asked about women's experi-
A modied Intention to treat analysis was used for outcome
ence of the RCT.
analysis; this meant analysing only participants who completed
four or more study weeks and provided baseline and end of
2.7. Data analysis
intervention data. Missing observations within these participants
were imputed using the last number carried forward method.
The Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 21 was
used for data analysis. This study did not test for statistical differ-
ences between groups as it was not powered to detect these. 3. Results
Therefore, analysis on the effectiveness of reexology on preg-
nancy- LBPP was based on clinically important change (CIC), which 3.1. Participants
is positive change felt by the individual providing a degree of
symptom relief [21]. 428 women were invited to participate in the RCT, this included
For pain intensity and frequency CIC is considered as 1.5 cm on women with and without LBPP with the notion of trying to ensure
the pain VAS [22], three points on the RMDQ [23] and 30% change that all women had knowledge about the study should they
from baseline on the PMI [22]. In this paper we present descriptives develop LBPP later in their pregnancy. However, 52 of these were
120 C. Close et al. / Complementary Therapies in Clinical Practice 23 (2016) 117e124

automatically excluded mainly as they were participating in reexology participants and increased slightly in the usual care
another study, the remainder did not participate in the study for group. There was almost a 1 cm increase on the VAS for pain in-
reasons including no LBPP and travel issues. tensity for the footbath group. More women in the reexology
In total 90 pregnant women enrolled in the RCT. 30 participants group (37.5%) achieved a CIC in VAS for pain intensity for LBPP
were randomised to either a; reexology, footbath or usual care compared to the other two groups.
group with 64 participants completing the study (see Fig. 1). RMDQ scores decreased in the reexology group and increased
Those completing the study included 24 reexology partici- in other groups. Reductions in RMDQ scores in the reexology
pants, 25 usual care participants and 15 footbath participants. The group did not reach a clinically important level. However, more
mean age of participants completing the study in the reexology women in the reexology group (42%) had a mean CIC in the RMDQ
group was 30.7 years, in the footbath group was 32.3 years and in scores compared to other groups.
the usual care group was 30.1 years. Most women were in profes- PMI scores increased in all groups, increasing similarly in the
sional occupations (Table 3). reexology (2.59) and (2.60) footbath groups. However, a much
bigger increase (6.44) was observed in PMI scores for usual care
participants. A similar percentage of women in the reexology
3.2. Outcome measures
(21%) and usual care groups (20%) had a CIC in PMI scores; no
women in the footbath group had a CIC in PMI scores.
Table 4 shows scores for LBPP OM's completed during the study
There was little change in STAI scores from the start to the end of
and Fig. 2 shows the number of women in each group achieving CIC
the study period in all groups.
for the LBPP OM's.
More reexology participants used pain medications (50%) and
Mean LBPP frequency score for the reexology group improved
yoga (21%) to manage LBPP as an addition to reexology. More
by 1.64 cm from the start to end of intervention. This reduction was
footbath participants used physiotherapy (20%), Pilates (33%) and
greater than the minimum change of 1.5 cm needed on the pain
massage (20%) in addition to the footbath.
VAS to demonstrate a CIC. There was a slight increase of 0.45 cm in
At baseline women had higher expectations of the helpfulness
LBPP frequency in footbath participants and a minimal decrease in
of reexology (6.92/10) for reducing LBPP compared with footbaths
LBPP frequency of 0.36 cm on the VAS in the usual care participants.
(4.57/10). Reexology participants reported nding reexology
More women in the reexology group (58%) achieved a CIC in VAS
more helpful for reducing their LBPP compared to footbath par-
pain frequency compared to the other two groups.
ticipants (6.92/10 compared with 3.65/10).
The mean LBPP VAS for pain intensity reduced slightly in

Fig. 1. Flow and retention diagram of participants progress throughout the pilot RCT.
 C. Close et al. / Complementary Therapies in Clinical Practice 23 (2016) 117e124 121

Table 3
Demographics by group allocation for the 64 women who complied with the study protocol and were included in MITT analysis, along with standard deviations in brackets.

Reexology (n 24) Footbath Usual care

(n 15) (n 25)

Mean Age 30.7 (3.64) 32.3 (3.15) 30.1 (5.65)

(years)
Mean baseline gestation 27 (0.98) 27 (0.93) 27.08 (0.86)
(weeks)
Mean end of intervention gestation 33.58(1.25) 33.53 (1.06) 32.04(1.26)
(weeks)
BMI 26.11 (3.68) 25.13(4.10) 25.66 (4.16)
Socio economic status 1 U/E 0 U/E 1 U/E
12-PRO 7 PRO 14 PRO
8 SS 5 SS 7 SS
3 US 3 US 3 US
CAM experience Yes 23 Yes 11 Yes 20
No 1 No 4 No 5
Type of pain LBP 13 LBP 8 LBP 13
PP 1 PP 0 PP 1
LB & PP 10 LB& PP 7 LB& PP 11
Occurrence of LBPP pre-pregnancy Yes 14 Yes 5 Yes 11
No 10 No 10 No 14

Key to abbreviations: CAM-Complementary and Alternative Medicine; BMI-body mass index; U/E-unemployed; PRO-Professional; SS-Semi-skilled; US-unskilled; LBPP-Low
back and/or pelvic pain; LBP-Low back pain, Pelvic Pain-PP.

Table 4
Pain VAS, RMDQ, PMI, STAI scores-Means, standard deviations and score changes.

Reexology Footbath Usual care

Pain Vas week 0 LBPP FREQUENCY 7.05 (2.36) 5.65 (2.27) 5.86 (2.54)
Pain VAS week 6 LBPP FREQUENCY 5.41 (2.80) 6.13(2.85) 5.50 (2.80)
Change 1.64 0.48 0.36
Pain VAS week 0 LBPP INTENSITY 5.81 (2.02) 4.68 (2.31) 5.12 (2.19)
Pain VAS week 6 LBPP INTENSITY 5.14 (2.65) 5.63 (2.26) 5.33 (2.69)
Change 0.67 0.95 0.21
RMDQ week 0 9.67 (3.91) 9.67 (3.98) 9.04 (4.96)
RMDQ week 6 8.29 (5.23) 11.13 (5.13) 10.21(5.28)
Change 1.38 1.46 1.17
PMI week 0 23.29 (9.60) 27.13 (8.94) 22.60 (13.16)
PMI week 6 25.88 (11.88) 29.73 (11.50) 29.44 (14.18)
Change 2.59 2.6 6.84
STAI week 0 43.46 (5.18) 44.2 (3.84) 45.72 (4.09)
STAI week 6 44.92 (4.12) 45.07 (3.33) 45.72 (4.69)
Change 1.46 0.87 Nil

Fig. 2. Percentage of women in each group who showed a Clinically Important Change (CIC) for a range of LBPP outcome measures over the study period.
122 C. Close et al. / Complementary Therapies in Clinical Practice 23 (2016) 117e124

3.3. Adverse effects 4. Discussion

No adverse outcomes were reported throughout the study. This is the rst RCT to investigate reexology in the manage-
However, one reexology participant had a stillbirth at 41 weeks ment of pregnancy- LBPP and to nd improvements in LBPP OM's.
gestation and another woman gave birth to a baby with a known We have demonstrated it is possible to recruit pregnant women
cardiac problem that died three weeks after birth. Both events were into an RCT investigating reexology for pregnancy -LBPP and to
viewed by clinical staff in the maternity unit to be unrelated to this deliver CAM treatments as part of an RCT in a maternity hospital. In
study. 14 months, 90 women were recruited to the study. An Australian
researcher took two years to recruit 69 women into a RCT investi-
gating reexology for pregnancy ankle oedema [24]. Therefore,
3.4. Feasibility recruitment into this study was found to be feasible. Overall,
attrition rates (28%) were as expected. Two RCT's of a similar size
Retention rates for the reexology and usual care groups were investigating acupuncture for pregnancy LBP and pelvic pain re-
80% and 83% respectively. 50% of women randomised to the foot- ported a 28% and 32% drop out rate respectively [25,26]. Attrition
bath group dropped out before the end of the intervention. Com- rates were higher for the footbath group than other groups. The
mon reasons for dropping out were the development of a health Australian reexology study for ankle oedema also had issues with
condition, unhappy with treatment allocation and work drop-outs in their control group[24].Low expectations for helpful-
commitments. ness of footbaths and the fact that women reported being fuelled to
24/30 reexology participants attended four or more treatments participate in the study by the prospect of receiving reexology
compared to just 15/30 footbath participants. 10/30 footbath par- could explain the high attrition rates and poor compliance with the
ticipants attended for just one treatment compared to just 3/30 footbath.
reexology women. 25/30 usual care women provided data for at Sham treatments are important in CAM research as a useful way
least four weeks. of determining if a CAM treatment is related to the treatment
provided or the context in which it is being delivered. However, it is
3.5. Focus groups important that participants are blinded to the treatment of interest.
While ever effort was made to blind women to the treatment of
14 women attended three focus groups. This included eight interest in this study, focus group ndings would indicate that
reexology participants, four footbath participants and two usual blinding may not have been successful. Footbaths are used in ma-
care participants. Quotes will be presented as follows participant ternity settings in Japan, for labouring women to facilitate relaxa-
number (PN), age, intervention group footbath (FB), reexology (R) tion and to aid a smooth labour process [27]. Therefore, footbaths
Usual Care (UC) and type of pain low back pain (LBP) Pelvic pain were chosen as the sham treatment for this study as they provided
(PP). a relaxing treatment which would control for patient therapist
Those allocated to footbath and usual care reported being un- interaction but without additional touching of the feet. For a future
happy with their group allocation: trial, the use of sham reexology may be a more appropriate sham
treatment, as it may be easier to blind participants and attrition
I was really disappointed I have to admit I was gutted rates in reexology studies employing sham reexology have been
because I wanted to see if the reexology would help, acceptable [28]. However, a recent reexology review highlights
that nding an appropriate sham treatment for reexology without
PN8, 35 UC LB&PP stimulating the feet reexes may be challenging as even light
pressure on the feet may stimulate the reexes [29]. Several studies
The majority of women reported that they took part for the hope using sham reexology as a comparator for true reexology found
of getting reexology: positive effects of both treatments, or smaller differences between
groups [24,28], supporting the theory that it is difcult to work
Potentially getting reexology then yes absolutely I had with the feet without stimulating the reexes.
nothing to lose, This study demonstrated that it is feasible to use the VAS for
pain frequency and Intensity and RMDQ. These OM's are already
PN14, 30 R LB & PP showing trends and detecting CIC suggesting they are sufciently
sensitive to detect change within this population. The use of the s-
Focus groups drew attention to the fact that several women had subscale of STAI may not be particularly suitable for assessing re-
been informed by staff that reexology was the treatment of ductions in stress associated with reexology as little changes were
interest: detected. However, it is possible that reexology may reduce
pregnancy specic stress and not general stress and a future study
I was told it was reexology and it would help your back pain may consider assessing the impact of reexology on pregnancy
the midwife didn't actually say to me at that point there are specic stress. The PMI didn't show any trends in outcomes. This
three options, could be due to interpretation of the questions. Woman may have
found it difcult to separate restrictions their LBPP was causing and
PN8, 35 UC LBP & PP what restrictions the actual pregnancy itself is causing due to
pregnancy weight gain.
Women who received reexology displayed very positive atti- There were trends in improvement in three of the four LBPP
tudes towards reexology, discussing improvements following OM's assessed for the reexology participants and a CIC was ach-
treatment: ieved for the VAS for frequency of pain in this group. In addition
more individual women achieved a CIC for all of the OMs following
I had reexology and it was brilliant it really really helped I reexology than footbath or usual care groups. Any trends in
think after two session I was off the crutches and able to kind of improvement in LBPP OM's as pregnancy progresses are worthy of
move a bit better, (PN5, 26 R LBPP). further exploration as the LBPP literature suggests that pregnancy-
 C. Close et al. / Complementary Therapies in Clinical Practice 23 (2016) 117e124 123

LBPP increases as pregnancy advances. A fully powered RCT would The ndings of this present study expand the evidence-base on
be required to be able to determine the true impact of reexology on non-pharmacological and CAM for pregnancy- LBPP, which to date
pregnancy- LBPP, testing for statistical differences between groups. are sparse. Reexology is a CAM therapy, popular with pregnant
While the inability to analyse the present RCT ndings for sta- women with evidence of effectiveness for non-specic LBP yet until
tistical differences impedes on our ability to determine treatment is now there has been no data from RCT's investigating the potential
more effective than another, the presence of CIC is still a notable effectiveness of reexology for pregnancy- LBPP.
nding for a subjective condition like LBPP meaning that some Given the positive ndings about reexology for managing
patients found a degree of symptom relief. CIC is a useful tool in pregnancy- LBPP it would be important to undertake a fully pow-
back pain treatment used to determine the responsiveness to ered trial to conrm or disprove these. If future studies provide
treatment on an individual basis [30]. It is not always possible to evidence that reexology is effective for managing pregnancy-LBPP
determine statistical signicances, as in this present study when this may help reduce the use of pain medications for pregnancy-
sample sizes are too small however; CIC could be viewed as another LBPP [6]. This is a priority as there is no robust evidence supporting
method of assessing effectiveness when this is not possible. the use of pain medications safe during pregnancy. Further to this,
The improvements in LBPP OM's following reexology in this reexology if proven effective in future studies may reduce the
study are supported by other studies [14,15]. However, while the societal impact of pregnancy- LBPP as well as reducing the personal
available published studies on reexology for LBP found reexology impact this pain has on women's lives.
performed superior to a sham, both studies also found improve-
ments in the sham groups. These studies possibly demonstrated 5. Limitations
improvements in LBP in the sham group as both studies employed
sham treatments that involved touch. Researchers have suggested The primary limitations of this RCT were the use of self-report
that touch can stop pain signals reaching the brain [31]. The foot- measures and the small sample size. The small sample size
bath and usual care participants simply may not have improved means that it was impossible to analysis RCT data for statistical
LBPP OM's as they did not receive a treatment involving touch. differences between groups, and therefore we used CIC as a mea-
Another possible reason why reexology participants in our sure of effectiveness for reexology. This method of assessing the
study had better LBPP outcomes could be explained by their more effectiveness of treatments is not routinely used in RCTs as it is
frequent use of pain medications and yoga. While pain medications unable to determine if one group is superior to another and this
have not been investigated for their effectiveness for reducing could be considered a limitation of the present study. Another
pregnancy -LBPP, it would be expected that they would have some important limitation is the fact that pain frequency was the only
reducing effect [32]. Furthermore, yoga has been shown in two OM to have a CIC yet for this particular outcome measure reex-
studies to produce statistically signicant reductions in pregnancy ology participants started out over one point higher than the other
-LBPP and therefore may have contributed to the improved LBPP two groups, meaning they had greater scope for improvement in
outcomes for reexology participants [33,34]. Despite this it is still this outcome measure compared with the other groups.
possible that the application of the reexology, specically the
stimulation of the back and pelvis reexes on the feet, caused the 6. Conclusion
improved LBPP outcomes. In order to determine if reexology is or
is not a precision treatment, future studies need to carefully This study has demonstrated that it is possible to conduct an
consider the use of an appropriate sham treatment. RCT investigating the effectiveness of reexology pregnancy-LBPP.
Several theories have been suggested as to why reexology may It is possible to recruit participants, complete interventions and
reduce pain and disability; one popular theory is the beta endor- compliance, retention and OM sensitivity were acceptable. Before
phin release theory. While some researchers claim that this is why reexology can be considered as a treatment for pregnancy- LBPP, a
reexology reduces pain [19], this theory was examined in another fully powered trial needs to be conducted. This is important given
part of this study by a co-investigator and was not substantiated. that the present ndings suggesting that reexology may help
The methods and results of this exploration of the beta-endorphin improve pregnancy eLBPP.
theory as the mechanism of action for reexology have been Research team (aside from third person Elaine Madden) and
described elsewhere [35]. biblography
124 C. Close et al. / Complementary Therapies in Clinical Practice 23 (2016) 117e124

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