A Study on Effects of Acupressure Among the Frail Elderly in the Community Dwellings

Summary

Acupressure has been used for thousands of years in China. Through applying pressure on the specific acupoints based on TCM theory, acupressure could promote relaxation and wellness, balance yin-yang and treat diseases.

The PI has been using acupressure to treat various diseases in the clinics of the School of Chinese Medicine, HKU. Acupressure has demonstrated significant efficacy in treating geriatric diseases, obstetric diseases, pediatric diseases, rheumatoid arthritis and various painful symptoms. When applying acupressure on the Head- Neck - Shoulder area, it could also help to improve insomnia, reduce pain, and regulate the mood of the patients.

"Frailty" is a geriatric syndrome of growing importance in the medical field. Prevalence of frailty increases with age. As our life expectancy increase, there will be more elderly suffered from frailty in the later stage of their life. Although there is still a lack of universally accepted clinical definition for frailty, the syndrome is now commonly understood as decreased reserves in multiple systems, and lowered resilience to negative stress. Frailty could be initiated by single or multiple conditions including malnutrition, chronic diseases, lack of exercise, stress and physiological or social changes caused by aging. Its manifestation includes sarcopenia, anorexia, energy reduction, dysfunctional neuroendocrine system and a pro-inflammatory state. Frailty could affect the emotional state of the elderly, meanwhile, positive affect is protective against the functional and physical decline associated with frailty.\[1\] There is limited treatment or medication for frailty. The investigators believe that acupressure could be a possible non invasive means to improve the general health conditions, including the emotional conditions of the frail elderly. In the past 2 years, the school of Chinese Medicine has been promoting acupressure as a health maintenance technique to the elderly, mostly frail elderly living in the community dwelling through seminars. It is in our interest to run a prospective research to further understand the efficacy of acupressure in a wider range of frail elderly. The investigators would like to use a well-designed pragmatic randomized controlled trial (PRCT) to investigate if acupressure could help the frail elderly to improve their general quality of life.

Conditions

• Impaired

Interventions

OTHER

acupressure

A 15 minutes structured acupressure protocol with specific acupoints and applications technique will be performed on the elderly participants twice a week by the research team in YCHSS centers. The caregiver of the elderly will be trained and perform the same acupressure protocol on the elderly at 2 additional occasions during the week. The total trial period is 12 weeks.

Sponsors & Collaborators

• Yan Chai Hospital

  collaborator OTHER

• The University of Hong Kong

  lead OTHER

Principal Investigators

• Lei Li · The University of Hong Kong

Study Design

Allocation

RANDOMIZED

Purpose

TREATMENT

Masking

SINGLE

Model

PARALLEL

Eligibility

Min Age

65 Years

Sex

ALL

Healthy Volunteers

No

Timeline & Regulatory

Start

2014-12-31

Primary Completion

2015-10-31

Completion

2015-12-31

Countries

• China

Study Locations