Auricular Acupressure for Chronic Low Back Pain in Postmenopausal Women

Condition(s) studied

Investigational drug(s) / intervention(s)

auricular acupressure: The experimental group received auricular acupressure at the Shenmen, Sympathetic, Subcortes, and Lower Back Points for four weeks.

sham auricular acupressure: the control group received auricular acupressure at the Stomach, Mouth, Duodenum, and Tonsil points for four weeks.

Study summary

Participants were recruited from two areas in southern Taiwan: the traditional Chinese medicine outpatient clinics at Kaohsiung Medical University Chung-Ho Memorial Hospital and Kaohsiung Municipal Siaogang Hospital, as well as community-based traditional Chinese medicine clinics. Individuals interested in participating were interviewed in the research office on the same day. The inclusion criteria were: (1) women aged 50-65 years and (2) low back pain lasting longer than 12 weeks.

Eligibility

Primary outcome measure(s)

• The Chinese Roland-Morris Disability Questionnaire — Baseline(T0), immediately post-intervention (T1), 2-week follow-up (T2), and 4-week follow-up (T3).
  The questionnaire consists of 24 self-reported items assessing the impact of low back pain on daily functioning. Each item is answered as either "Yes" or "No," with "Yes" scored as 1 and "No" scored as 0. Higher total scores indicate greater functional disability.
• Brief Pain Invetory- Taiwan Form, BQT, BPI-T — Baseline(T0), immediately post-intervention (T1), 2-week follow-up (T2), and 4-week follow-up (T3).
  The scale consists of two sections with a total of 11 items. The first section, pain severity, consists of four items that assess the severity of pain in individuals with low back pain. The second section, pain interference, consists of seven items that assess the extent to which pain interferes with daily functioning. Each item is rated on an 11-point numeric rating scale ranging from 0 to 10, with 0 indicating no impact and 10 indicating extreme impact. Scores of 1-4 indicate mild severity, scores of 5-6 indicate moderate severity, and scores of 7 or higher indicate severe severity. Higher scores indicate greater pain severity or greater interference with daily functioning.

Trial sites (1)

Other trials for the same condition