Effect of Hugs on Promoting Relaxation in Children with Severe Motor and Intellectual Disabilities in Medical Care Dependent Groups (SMID-MCDG): Results of a Single-arm, Multicenter, Intervention Trial

Children with severe motor and intellectual disabilities in medical care dependent groups (SMID-MCDG) are exposed to chronic stress due to their unstable state of health and daily medical care.The purpose of this study was to verify the effectiveness of stress release through hugging.The intervention consisted of singing and rocking with hugs once a week for 24 weeks.The practitioner sang a song and slowly rocked the child's upper body up and down.The primary endpoint was the high-frequency (HF) component, an index of parasympathetic nervous system activity, based on frequency analysis of heart rate variability.Secondary endpoints included the ratio of the low frequency (LF) to HF component (LF/HF) as an index of sympathetic nervous system activity, salivary amylase activity (sAA) as an index of eustress / distress, incidence of adverse events, and change in appearance.Results of those analyses of 16 cases showed that changes in mean values of HF, LF/HF, and sAA were not statistically significant.Results of additional analyses showed that no child experienced a serious adverse event and that when the child had a pleasant facial expression, the HF component was statistically significantly lower and the LF/HF component was higher.