Acupressure for Cough in Lung Cancer Survivors

Condition(s) studied

Investigational drug(s) / intervention(s)

acupressure: Participants will perform acupressure for 8 weeks and keep practice records in a diary log. Trainers will follow up with the participants twice weekly via phone or face-to-face to assess and reinforce their practice and address acupressure-related questions.

Education: Participants will receive an educational booklet in the first week after the baseline assessment and complete evaluations concurrently with the experimental group. Upon study completion, they will be offered a place on a waitlist for the same acupressure intervention provided to the experimental group.

Study summary

The goal of this randomized controlled trial is to examine the effect of an acupressure intervention in alleviating cough and reducing co-occurring symptoms (dyspnea, cough, and fatigue) in patients with lung cancer.

The hypotheses are:

1. Acupressure can alleviate cough in lung cancer survivors;
2. Acupressure can reduce a cough-related symptom cluster (dyspnea-cough-fatigue) experienced by lung cancer survivors;
3. Acupressure can reduce the symptom burden and improve the health-related quality of life and functional capacity of lung cancer survivors experiencing cough.

Participants will:

Receive acupressure for 8 weeks or receive an education booklet; Keep a diary of their acupressure practice and symptoms; Be assessed at baseline (T0), early intervention (T1), post-intervention (T2), and 8 weeks after the intervention period (T3).

Eligibility

Primary outcome measure(s)

• Cough — Pre-intervention (T0, baseline); Early intervention (T1, 1 week after T0); Post-intervention (T2, 8 weeks after T0); Follow-up (T3, 16 weeks after T0)
  The cough will be evaluated using the Cough Evaluation Test (CET). The 5-item instrument assesses cough under physical, psychological and social domains, with each item graded on a five-point scale, with a higher total score indicating a greater level of symptom and an MCID of 2 points.

Trial sites (2)

More The University of Hong Kong trials in China

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