A systematic review and meta-analysis published in Nature Human Behaviour on April 8 reveals that physical touch from humans and animals can reduce pain, depression, and anxiety in adults and children. The study suggests that touch is beneficial for various physiological and psychological health outcomes, applicable across all ages, for both healthy individuals and those in clinical settings.
Touch is essential to humans—it is the first sense to develop in newborns and our most direct means of interacting with the world. Although previous studies have shown the benefits of touch for physical and mental health, they often focused on specific health outcomes or did not account for variables such as the type of contact or who was involved in the interaction.
Julian Packheiser and colleagues from Ruhr University Bochum in Germany conducted a systematic review and meta-analysis of 212 studies involving 12,966 individuals to explore the health benefits of touch.
The researchers found robust evidence that adults benefit from contact with other humans or objects (including robots and even weighted blankets). However, psychological benefits are greater when the contact involves another person compared to an object. Similarly, no differences in health benefits were observed between types of touch (e.g., massage or hugging) in adults. These results were replicated in newborns as well.
The frequency of touch also appears to be important, with more frequent interventions providing greater benefits. The effects of touch interventions on improving mental health were similar in both clinical and non-clinical settings. The researchers also found that touching the head (e.g., face or scalp) resulted in better health outcomes than other body parts, and one-sided touch was more beneficial than mutual touch.
The researchers suggest that future studies should explore the effects of different touch interventions in large controlled trials to ensure the reliability of these findings. Additionally, further research could investigate whether touch interventions are equally effective across different cultures, as most current studies are from cultures in middle to high-income countries.
For more details on the study, visit: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41562-024-01841-8
