Practice and research in Australian massage therapy: a national workforce survey

Abstract

BackgroundMassage is the largest complementary medicine profession in Australia, in terms of public utilisation, practitioner distribution, and number of practitioners, and is being increasingly integrated into the Australian health care system. However, despite the increasing importance of massage therapists in Australian health care delivery, or the increased practice and education obligations this may entail, there has been little exploration of practice, research, and education characteristics of the Australian massage therapist workforce.PurposeTo identify practice, research, and education characteristics among the Australian massage therapist workforce.SettingsThe Australian massage therapy profession.Participants301 randomly selected members of the Association of Massage Therapists (Australia).Research DesignA 15-item, cross-sectional telephone survey.Main Outcomes MeasuresMassage therapists’ demographic information, practice characteristics, and education and research characteristics.ResultsMost respondents (73.8%) worked 20 hours per week or less practising massage, nearly half of all respondents (46.8%) treated fewer than 10 massage clients per week, and over three-quarters (81.7%) of respondents were self-employed. Massage therapy was the sole source of income for just over half (55.0%) of the study respondents. Only 5.7% of respondents earned over the average wage ($50,000) through their massage activities. Nearly half of all respondents (43.3%) reported regularly exceeding their continuing professional education (CPE) quota mandated by their professional association. However, 21.1% reported struggling to achieve their CPE quota each year. Over one-third of respondents (35.6%) were not interested in acquiring further CPE points beyond minimum requirements. Respondents were significantly more likely to have an active approach to research if they had higher income (p = .015). Multivariate analysis showed factors associated with access to CPE to be the only significant predictors for increased CPE.ConclusionsThe massage profession in Australia remains largely part-time and practitioners earn less than the average Australian wage. The factors that underlie research and education involvement appear to be highly individualised and, therefore, policies targeting specific groups may be arbitrary and ineffective.

The Australian Complementary Medicine Workforce: A Profile of 1,306 Practitioners from the PRACI Study

“…29 Equally, peak professional bodies charged with supporting the advancement, professionalisation and sustainability of a health profession benefit from detailed workforce data to assist them in their efforts. 30 Some attempts have been made to characterise the Australian CM workforce by analysing existing data on the general CM workforce 31 or by focusing on specific unregistered professions, such as Western herbalists, [32][33][34] massage therapists, 35 and naturopaths. 32,34 This body of work has provided some insights into the demographic profile 31,32 and attitudes of CM practitioners, 35 as well as the practice characteristics of specific CM disciplines.…”

“…30 Some attempts have been made to characterise the Australian CM workforce by analysing existing data on the general CM workforce 31 or by focusing on specific unregistered professions, such as Western herbalists, [32][33][34] massage therapists, 35 and naturopaths. 32,34 This body of work has provided some insights into the demographic profile 31,32 and attitudes of CM practitioners, 35 as well as the practice characteristics of specific CM disciplines. 32,33,35 Analyses of registrant data for the few CM professions that are registered in Australia, whilst representative of these professions, have largely been limited by focusing only on practitioner demographics and practice location 36 with the chiropractic 37 and osteopathic 38 professions the few exceptions.…”

“…32,34 This body of work has provided some insights into the demographic profile 31,32 and attitudes of CM practitioners, 35 as well as the practice characteristics of specific CM disciplines. 32,33,35 Analyses of registrant data for the few CM professions that are registered in Australia, whilst representative of these professions, have largely been limited by focusing only on practitioner demographics and practice location 36 with the chiropractic 37 and osteopathic 38 professions the few exceptions. Only one of these studies captures a sample representative of the Australian population 31 and while more accurate workforce data for registered professions can be found in government reports, 30 there are still large areas of uncertainty regarding the details of the workforce for unregistered professions.…”

Characteristics of complementary medicine therapists in Switzerland: A cross-sectional study

“…Such studies have provided useful descriptive information about curricula and the sociodemographic and practice profiles of therapists in the various states within the country. The profiles of CM therapists have been investigated more extensively in Australia and New Zealand through surveys conducted among massage therapists, TCM therapists, osteopaths, and naturopaths [9–18]. In Europe, studies have mainly described the characteristics of acupuncturists and osteopaths, but most of those studies focused solely on the type of care delivered and on patient profiles [19–25].…”

What Should We Do Different, More, Start and Stop? Systematic Collection and Dissemination of Massage Education Stakeholder Views from the 2017 Alliance for Massage Therapy Educational Congress†

“…While the massage profession's improvement through elevated education standards is important, education and standards should not be the sole mechanism for change. Indeed, Wardle et al (15) point to the need for a broader agenda within the massage field, including attention to "upstream factors such as more active collaboration between researchers, clinicians, and policy-makers" (p.8), for overall Niki Munk, PhD, LMT, 1,2 Jasmine Dyson-Drake, BS 1 Diane Mastnardo, LMT 3 members? Perspective from schools, employers, independent contractors (IC), and continuing education (CE) providers.…”