Theses (Master of Science Acupuncture)

Background: Since ancient times, Acupuncture was used to treat painful conditions in patient. Currently there is limited research evidence as to whether pregnant women are supportive of acupuncture treatment in maternity services for labour pain management in Malaysia. Objective: To evaluate the perception and acceptance of acupuncture as an alternative, non - pharmacological labour pain management (NPLPM) among antenatal women in a district region, Sandakan, state of Sabah in Malaysia. Method: This is a descriptive, cross-sectional study conducted using a convenient and voluntary sampling method. A total of 201 antenatal women were recruited in the antenatal clinic in a private hospital in Sandakan, Sabah, Malaysia. Data collection tool was a validated, self-administered bilingual questionnaire form consisting of Malay and English language version. All antenatal women regardless of their gestational age, who were attending the antenatal clinic, were included during the study period. The collected data were analysed using SPSS software. Results: 201(100%) respondents had completed and returned the questionnaire form. The study population generally have positive perceptions towards acupuncture. 51.7% of the responders are willing to accept acupuncture as an alternative NPLPM method if available. 35.8% of the responders are in the neutral group and 12 .5% of the responders are not willing to accept acupuncture as an option for their labour pain management. There was a statistically significant difference in acceptance of acupuncture as an alternative NPLPM method among those with and without acupuncture knowledge. Conclusion: About half of the study population are willing to accept acupuncture as a NPLPM method. Introduction of acupuncture for labour pain management can be beneficial and considered especially for woman who refused pharmacological treatment, who has contraindication for labour epidural and in rural region with limited resources. Patients' knowledge, awareness and past experience of acupuncture had a significant effect on acceptance of acupuncture for labour pain management. Keywords Perception, attitudes, knowledge, acupuncture, labour pain, Sabah

Acupuncture is the practice of stimulating specific points on the body according to the Chinese medicine meridian theory, usually by inserting very fine needles through the skin. In 2003, the World Health Organization (WHO) published a review of clinical trials where it recognised 28 diseases, symptoms, or conditions that acupuncture has been proven to be an effective form of treatment (10). Hence, there was high rate of acupuncture utilization in countries such as the United States of America, Australia, Japan, and Taiwan (4-7). Studies have shown that acupuncture users were also from high education attainment (14-18). However, the rate of acupuncture utilization in Malaysia is still low. According to the National Health and Morbidity survey 2015, only 2.13% of the Malaysian population are using acupuncture and moxibustion according to the National Health and Morbidity survey 2015 (19). This same phenomenon can be observed at the Chinese Medicine clinic located within International Medical University (IMU) as well, where the utilisation rate of the clinic by IMU staff is only at 1% in 2019, despite the provision of discounts as well as medical expenses covered under staff benefits. Hence, we attempt to study the factors that affect the intention to utilize acupuncture in Malaysia, using questionnaires targeted at IMU staff which mainly comprise of the high educational attainment group, by applying the Theory of Planned Behaviour (TPB). The 3 main constructs of TPB are Attitude, Subjective Norms and Perceived Behaviour Control. This study is a designed to be cross-sectional and questionnaires were distributed through email. A total of 156 samples were collected at the end of the survey for analysis. The findings show that subjective norms and perceived behaviour control had a positive relationship on intention, while attitude appeared to have no effect on intention. Variables of ethnicity, marital status, education level and designation had no significant relationship with intention to utilize acupuncture. Gender and household income have shown to have positive influence on intention. Female respondents with a monthly household income of less than RM5,000 show a higher intention to choose acupuncture as their treatment choice.

Introduction With the growing interest and increasing use of acupuncture in the treatment of various health conditions including pain relief, acupuncture has been integrated within many hospitals around the world. Objective To assess people's perception toward acupuncture as a treatment modality for pain, with the aim of providing meaningful information as an impetus toward future development of acupuncture in pain management. Methodology This research study was carried out via cross-sectional survey using a convenient sampling method. A sample of 373 members of a private healthcare centre was recruited. IBM SPSS Statistics 20 was used to carry out quantitative analysis of the data collected. Descriptive statistics such as percentages and frequencies were used to analyze the data collected. Results The mean knowledge score of the respondents was 3.38 ± 1.52; and the mean attitude score of the respondents was 6.11 ± I .4 I. There was statistically significant difference in the mean knowledge score and mean attitude score between Users and Non-users (p<0.05). Gender, age group, ethnicity, religion, education level and monthly income were found to be statistically insignificant variables in the mean knowledge score and mean attitude score (p>0.05). Close to half the respondents (49.6%) had received acupuncture treatment ("Users"). 60% of the Users were suffered from chronic pain. The most commonly treated pain condition among the Users was back pain (58.9%), followed by joint pain (42.2%) and neck pain (41 .1%). Among the User s, 93.5% of them felt that acupuncture has no side-effect, and 91 .8% of them felt that their pain conditions had been relieved after receiving acupuncture treatment Conclusion A majority of the respondents had an average level of knowledge and demonstrated a positive attitude toward acupuncture. Most of the Users perceived acupuncture as effective in the treatment of pain and without side-effect. Musculoskeletal pain was found to be the most commonly treated pain condition among the Users. Acupuncturists' experience was the top ranked criteria considered by respondents in their decision to use acupuncture. Keywords Pain Management, Acupuncture, Knowledge, Attitude, Survey