A Randomized Controlled Trial Of Different Acupuncture Frequency In Simple Obesity Patients

ObjectiveTo explore the differences of therapeutic effects of different acupuncture frequency on simple obesity; to testify the hypothesis that the therapeutic effects on simple obesity would be increased with higher frequency; to observe the optimal frequency for acupuncture treatment on simple obesity.MethodsA block randomization was performed on 93 volunteers who were diagnosed with simple obesity or overweight. They were later divided into group A, group B, group C and group D(sorted by acupuncture frequency). The acupuncture frequency of the 4 groups are 1 time/week,2 times/week,3 times/week, 4times/week respectively.Moreover, some data (such as weight, BMI, fat percentage, waist circumference, hip circumference, upper-arm circumference, thigh circumference) would be measured before the first treatment and at the end of the last treatment of every week. Besides, blood lipids would also be observed before the first treatment and at the end of the last treatment. After 4 weeks of treatments, all the data would be used for statistical analysis, among which T-test would be used to figure out the difference between pretherapy and post-treatment in each group, ANOVA would be used to figure out the differences among 4 groups.ResultsComparing post-treatment data with pretherapy data in each group, P-values for "weight, BMI and fat percentage" in group A are greater than 0.05, showing that there’s no statistical significance; but there is statistical significance between the differences of "waist circumference, hip circumference, upper-arm circumference and thigh circumference" (P<0.05). Meanwhile, P-values for all the index in group B, group C and group D are less than 0.05, pointing out that there’s statistical significance among their differences, except "fat percentage" (P>0.05).When comparing the therapeutic effects of a group with others, there are no significant differences in "fat percentage, waist circumference, hip circumference and upper-arm circumference" (P>0.05). P-values for "weight, BMI and thigh circumference" are respectively 0.103、0.084、0.056, which are considerably close to 0.05. When doing the multiple comparison, the differences of these 3 index between group A and group C, and group A and group D have statistical significance(P<0.05).The Power of ANOVA of "weight, BMI and thigh circumference" are respectively 0.52538、0.55872、0.62339, which are far less than 0.8, pointing out that the results have a high probability of showing false negative.ConclusionAcupuncture is an effective method to treat simple obesity.Though the differences of main index have no statistical significance when comparing the therapeutic effects of a group with others after the treatments for 4 weeks, we can’t conclude that there are no any therapeutic effect differences in different acupuncture frequency on simple obesity. It needs further studies.The optimal acupuncture frequency on simple obesity is 3 times/week (treat every other day). When the frequency≤3 times/week, the therapeutic effects increase with frequency; When the frequency becomes higher(4times/week), the increasing of therapeutic effects is not significant with frequency.