title: The effectiveness of massage therapy in the treatment of infantile colic symptoms: A randomized controlled trial.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Infantile colic, cry-fuss and sleep problems are transient in the initial months of life, but they contribute to maternal depression, parenting stress and family mental health problems. In this randomized clinical trial, we aimed to explore the efficacy of massage therapy compared to rocking in reducing infantile colic symptoms including duration and number of cries, sleep duration and severity of infant colic.
  
  
  METHODS
  This was a single blind RCT study with a one-week follow-up. One hundred colicky infants aged younger than 12 weeks old were randomly assigned into massage and rocking groups. Infants in the massage group received a massage for 15-20 minutes once during a day and once at night before sleeping for a week. In the control group, mothers rocked their infants gently for 5-25 minutes when the symptoms of colic appeared. Parents recorded the details of the colic symptoms in a diary every day. A GEE approach was applied to explore the effect of the intervention.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Efficiency of massage therapy was significantly higher than rocking. At the end of the study, the mean number of daily cries was 4.26±1.40 in the massage and 6.9±2.14 the rocking groups (p<0.01). The mean of the severity score was 1.39±0.19 less in the massage group (p<0.01). Moreover, the mean differences of massage and rocking groups were -0.82±0.20 hour (p<0.01) and 0.72±0.35 (p= 0.04) in the duration of cries and duration of sleep, respectively.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Massaging significantly improved colic symptoms during a one-week intervention for all outcomes. In addition, significant differences were found between the intervention and control groups in favor of massaging. Therefore, massage therapy is more effective than rocking for treating infant colic symptoms.
authors.affiliation: MSc student of Biostatistics, Department of Biostatistics, Faculty of Paramedical Sciences, Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran. ali.sheidaei@gmail.com.
authors.forename: Ali
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Sheidaei
authors.affiliation: PhD of Biostatistics, Associate Professor, Department of Community and Health, Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran. alirezaabadis@gmail.com.
authors.forename: Alireza
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Abadi
authors.affiliation: PhD of Biostatistics, Associate Professor, Department of Biostatistics, Faculty of Paramedical Sciences, Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran. fzayeri@yahoo.com.
authors.forename: Farid
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Zayeri
authors.affiliation: PhD of Health Education, Assistant Professor, Department of Midwifery and Reproductive Health, School of Nursing and Midwifery, Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran. nahidifateme@yahoo.com.
authors.forename: Fatemeh
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Nahidi
authors.affiliation: Master Degree of Midwifery, Department of Midwifery and Reproductive Health, Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran. shokouh.vasili@gmail.com.
authors.forename: Nafiseh
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Gazerani
authors.affiliation: MSc Student of Biostatistics, Department of Biostatistics, Faculty of Paramedical Sciences, Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran. anita.mansouri@gmail.com.
authors.forename: Anita
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Mansouri
keywords: Clinical Trial; Colic; Massage; Pediatrics