The Yale-Griffin Prevention Research Center (PRC) will share in a $2.75 million grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) for a four-year study on the impact of massage therapy for people with osteoarthritis, or degenerative arthritis, of the knee.
Part of the study will take place at Griffin Hospital in Derby.
Drs. David Katz and Ather Ali of PRC will participate in the study, which will determine if massage therapy works as a valuable, cost-effective option for treating osteoarthritis in clinical settings.
NIH awarded the grant to Duke Integrative Medicine and to its key research partners, PRC and the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey (UMDNJ).
If the study determines that massage therapy can serve as a valuable treatment option, health insurance companies may reimburse for it.
“Our findings to date are very promising and this study should give us the definitive answers we need to influence the standard of care,” Katz said in the press release.
The study will recruit more than 200 participants with osteoarthritis in the knee and each participant will be followed over the course of the year.
For those who qualify for the study, treatments will be available at Griffin Hospital in Derby, at the Barnabas Health Ambulatory Care Center in Livingston, N.J. and at Duke University in Durham, N.C.
For more information about taking part in the study in Connecticut, contact the study team by e‑mail at .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) or by phone at 203 – 732-1265, ext. 305.
