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Research Article
Self-reported Changes in Health Status in a Traditional Chinese Medicine Centre: An Observational Study
| Concetta Paola Pelullo1, Amanda Valdes Abuadili1, Ottavio Iommelli2 and Francesco Attena3* | |
| 1School of Hygiene and Preventive Medicine of the Second University of Naples, via Luciano Armanni, 5, Naples, Italy | |
| 2Traditional Chinese Medicine Centre of S. Paolo Hospital, via Terracina 219, Naples, Italy | |
| 3Department of Experimental Medicine of the Second University of Naples, via Luciano Armanni, 5, Naples, Italy | |
| Corresponding Author : | Francesco Attena Department of Experimental Medicine Second University of Naples Via Luciano Armanni, 5 80138 Naples, Italy Tel: +390815666030 E-mail: [email protected] |
| Received December 10, 2014; Accepted December 31, 2014; Published January 06, 2015 | |
| Citation: Pelullo CP, Abuadili AV, Iommelli O, Attena F (2015) Self-reported Changes in Health Status in a Traditional Chinese Medicine Centre: An Observational Study. J Nov Physiother 5:243. doi: 10.4172/2165-7025.1000243 | |
| Copyright: © 2015 Pelullo CP, et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. | |
Abstract
Background: Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) is a complex medical system that includes acupuncture, pharmacology, massage, gymnastics, moxibustion and cupping among its treatments.
Methods: The aim of this study was to investigate self-reported changes in health after TCM treatment that primarily involved acupuncture. An observational study of 428 patients was undertaken in a TCM centre in the city of Naples during the period 2013–2014. Six months after the first examination, we conducted telephone interviews to obtain information about the socio-demographic characteristics of patients, their clinical diagnosis and the therapy administered. The self-reported change in health status was obtained from question two of the short form-36 (SF-36) health survey questionnaire.
Results: Of the 428 interviewees, 42.5% declared that they felt “much better”, and 31.8% felt “somewhat better” compared with the period before the treatment. The main reason for consultation was osteoarticular disorders (77.1%), divided into neck pain/dysfunctional limitations (41.6%), lower back pain/dysfunctional limitations (20.1%) and other reasons (15.4%). There were no statistical differences in the change in health status among the different diagnostic categories (p>0.05). Marked improvement was higher in women.
Conclusions: Despite the well-known limitations of observational design, our study shows a satisfactory level of effectiveness of TCM and contributes to the assessment of TCM in actual clinical practice.
