NCT04191837

Self-administered Acupressure for Knee Osteoarthritis in Middle- and Older-Aged Adults

Self-administered Acupressure for Knee Osteoarthritis in Middle- and Older-Aged Adults: A Randomized Controlled Trial

• Status: Completed
• Phase: N/A
• Study type: Interventional
• Enrollment: 314 (actual)
• Sponsor: The Hong Kong Polytechnic University · Academic / Other
• Sex: All
• Age: 50 Years – 70 Years
• Healthy volunteers: Not accepted

Summary

This is a randomized controlled trial comparing the short-term and medium-term effect of self-administered and knee health education for relieving knee pain in middle-aged and older adults with knee osteoarthritis.

Detailed description

Knee osteoarthritis (OA) is one of the major causes of physical disability commonly influencing people aged above 50 years. Acupressure is proposed for alleviating knee OA symptoms because of the low cost of intervention, accessibility, and safety. Objectives: 1. To examine the short- and medium-term effectiveness of self-administered acupressure taught by a short training course on relieving knee OA pain in middle-aged and older adults. And to evaluate the subjects' compliance with self-administered acupressure for knee OA. Hypothesis: self-administered acupressure group would have a greater pain relief compared to the knee health education control in subjects with knee OA at week 4 (short-term) and 12 (medium-term). Design and subjects: A randomized, parallel-group, control trial. 314 subjects with knee OA will be recruited; 157 per group. All eligible subjects will be randomized to either self-administered acupressure or knee health education control group in 1:1 ratio. Interventions: Subjects in the self-acupressure group will attend two 2-hour training sessions to learn self-acupressure and will practice self-acupressure twice a day for 12 weeks; subjects in the education control group will receive two 2-hour training sessions to learn the health information related to knee OA. They will be told to follow the knee health instructions for 12 weeks. Main outcome measures: The primary outcome measure is the numerical rating scale for knee pain. Other measures include Western Ontario and McMaster University Osteoarthritis Index (WOMAC), Short-Form Six-Dimension (SF-6D), Timed Up \& Go Test (TUG) and Fast Gait Speed (FGS). Acceptability of two training courses will also be evaluated. Data Analysis: Differences in the questionnaire scores will be examined using a linear mixed-effects model. Intention-to-treat analyses will be conducted. Effect sizes will be computed by dividing the difference in means by the pooled standard deviation. Incremental costs and incremental effects will be compared between the self-acupressure and knee health education groups and and plotted the results in a cost-effectiveness acceptability curve.

Conditions

• Knee Osteoarthritis

Interventions

Type	Name	Description
OTHER	Self-administered acupressure treatment group	Subjects in the self-administered acupressure exercise group will receive two training sessions (2 hours each, 1-week apart). The self-administered acupressure treatment protocol was developed based on Chinese medicine meridian theory by previous studies and modified. The acupoints are indicated for knee pain and have been commonly used and tested for feasibility in pilot study. The training will be conducted in a group format with 4-6 subjects per group. Each subject will then receive a handout and an acupressure log. They will be told to perform the self-acupressure twice per day for 12 weeks.The capability of participants for self-administered acupressure will be inspected by the instructor with a competency checklist in each session. And a demonstration video will be sent to the participants via WhatsApp for their reference at home.
OTHER	Knee health education control group	Subjects in the health education control group will receive knowledge related to knee OA symptom management. The health education will be conducted in a talk format for 2 hours for two sessions. The course content is developed from the course materials from the websites of Elderly Health Service, Department of Health, Hong Kong SAR and reviewed. Subjects in knee health education group will be told to follow the knee health instruction for 12 weeks.

Timeline

• Start date: 2019-08-19
• Primary completion: 2021-04-30
• Completion: 2021-04-30
• First posted: 2019-12-10
• Last updated: 2024-04-15

Locations

1 site across 1 country: Hong Kong