Consensual physical contact is beneficial for human health at any stage of life. Those who receive hugs, massages and caresses see their pain level and symptoms of depression and anxiety reduced, and for newborns it helps them gain weight and regulate cortisol levels. These are the conclusions of a group of European researchers who, after reviewing more than 200 specialized studies in the field, claim the use of touch as a therapeutic approach.
The health benefits occur in all genders, ages and medical conditions evaluated. Also in healthy people, although the specific effects may differ from one to another. What does not influence, according to the study published this Monday in the journal Nature Human Behavior, is the type of contact that is applied or who applies it. Having a family member do it has the same benefits as if it is done by nursing staff. The exception is babies, who respond better to maternal touch.
These types of details, beyond the beneficial effects of touch per se, are what the researchers have sought to elucidate in this Monday's publication. That physical contact was positive for physical and mental health had already been demonstrated by various publications before, but how do issues such as the type of contact, the person who gives it, the frequency with which it is received or the area of the body that is worked influence? It was something much more unknown.
To this end, German and Dutch researchers have carried out a meta-analysis of the available evidence. This type of study consists of a detailed review of the works published to date on a specific topic, and allows the scientific knowledge on the matter to be evaluated. The objective was to know if any condition makes these actions especially positive.
Having ruled out familiarity and the type of contact as differential factors, the researchers have focused on time. They have seen that a longer duration of skin-to-skin rubbing does not influence the benefits of contact, but that the frequency with which it is applied does matter. The more frequent, the greater the therapeutic effect.
Similarly, caresses and massages on the face and scalp are more beneficial than if applied to the rest of the body, and receiving them without having to return them multiplies these positive effects.
These details are important to develop touch-based therapeutic interventions that are as effective as possible. In their publication, the researchers consider they have “robustly” demonstrated that such approaches “can be used systematically on the population to preserve and improve our health.”
But, what about in a situation of social isolation, such as that derived from the covid-19 pandemic? There are alternatives to human contact, such as specialized robots or weighted blankets, but the evidence of their usefulness and, above all, whether they fulfilled their function with the same success as feeling the skin of another, was smaller.
Researchers have found that on a physical level, the benefits are equivalent, but on the other hand, mental health does suffer somewhat. It improves, but it does less than when someone else caresses us. These objects are, in any case, a useful alternative when human contact is impossible.
Research has also revealed that the majority of people included in studies that analyze the benefits of physical contact are women, and that in practically none of them the results were segregated by gender.
This has prevented, to a certain extent, from verifying how different the effects were in each case, something that remains to be elucidated in the future. But in general terms there are few doubts. Physical contact is health.
