ABSTRACT
OBJECTIVE: To analyze the characteristics of smokers treated with acupuncture for smoking cessation in Hong Kong.
METHODS: A total of 2051 subjects were recruited in a clinical pilot research project „acupuncture for smoking cessation“, which was conducted jointly by Institute of Acupuncture and Moxibustion, China Academy of Chinese Medical Sciences and Hong Kong Pok Oi Hospital from January of 2011 to December of 2013. The characteristics of study subjects, including baseline information, smoking background, intention to quit and influencing factorswereanalyzed.
RESULTS: The majority of subjects treated with acupuncture for smoking cessation in Hong Kong was male (66.7%), but the proportion of female smokers in this study (33.3%) was higher than that of female smokers in Hong Kong population (13.8%, P < 0.05). Subjects were at the mean age of 43.83 years old, of which the percentage of females aged 31-40 years was the highest (38.8%, P < 0.05). The mean duration of smoking was 25.49 years. The number of cigarettes smoked per day was 17.57 cigarettes. Fagerstrom Test for Nicotine Dependence (FTND) was 5.29 points. Most of the subjects had attempted quitting smoking (81.42%). The confidence index (7.44 points) and the readiness to quit smoking (8.13 points) were high. Subjects quitting smoking were mostly due to health cause (81.91%).The majority of subjects were at the level of middle school (61.63%). The higher the educational level was, the lower the tobacco dependence was and the higher the confidence in successfully quitting smoking was. 50.27% of subjects chose acupuncture for smoking cessation mainly through friends, television and network publicity. Subjects who had received acupuncture had the highest confidence index, while those who wanted to try a new method hadthelowerconfidenceindex.
CONCLUSION: Acupuncture for smoking cessation was more popular in female smokers, especially those aged 31-40 years. The effectiveness of acupuncture-smoking cessation was most significant in the smokers over 60.
Data collection Data of this study were collected from the active smoking subjects enrolled in the clinical pilot project „acupuncture for smoking cessation“, which supported by Tobacco Control Office of Hong Kong Department of Health and conducted jointly by Institute of Acupuncture and Moxibustion China Academy of Chinese MedicalSciencesandHongKongPokOiHospital. In this project, daily smokers at the age of 18-75 years old who was willing to quit smoking were included. After signing the informed consent, subjects were treated with acupuncture combined with psychological treatment.
The acupoints of bilateral Baihui (GV 20), Yintang (EX-HN 3), Lieque (LU 7), Hegu (LI 4), Neiguan (PC 6), Sanyinjiao (SP 6), Taichong (LR 3) and Zusanli (ST 36) were selected. Needles were retained for 20 min. Subjects were asked to receive acupuncture for at least 6 times within a month. In addition to acupuncture treatment, subjects also accepted psychological treatment based on their self-condition for at least
15 min every time. Acupuncture treatment lasted for 8 weeks. Abstinence rates at 8th week, 26th week and 52nd week were taken as the outcome measures. This study was approved by ethic committee of Hong Kong Pok Oi Hospital. The recruitment, inclusion and acupuncture methods of this observational study have beenpublished.
Author: WangYingying, Liu Zhao, Zhang Ou, Chen Min, Huang Lingling,WuYuan, Zhang Fanfan,Wu Guanyi, He Xiuqing,YangJinsheng
Quelle: JTraditChinMed2016October15;36(5):634-639