Theses (Master of Science Acupuncture)

Background: Members seek for traditional & complimentary treatments for a variety of symptoms. No previous studies have reviewed the data available in medical records from Golden Horses Health Sanctuary (GHHS) healthcare. This study aims to identify the characteristics of members who visited (GHHS) Healthcare Traditional Chinese Medicine Center. Objective: I. To identify the socio-demo graphic characteristics and diseases classification of members who seek for Chinese medicine treatments at Golden Horses Health Sanctuary (GHHS) Healthcare Traditional Chinese Medicine Center. 2. To identify the diseases classification of members who undergo multi modal treatments. 3. To determine the types of Chinese medicine treatments that members received. Method: Primary data from April 2022 to May 2022 were collected from members who visited GHHS healthcare traditional Chinese medicine center. Member data, including demo graphics, primary symptom, clinical history, western medicine treatment and Chinese medicine treatment were analysed with descriptive statistics using SPSS version 20.0 Results: From 176 members with their primary symptoms, the mean age of the members was 50.70 and the majority were female (61.4%). The members mostly visited GHHS healthcare are Chinese (78.4%). Majority members were employed and self-employed (69.3%), well educated (69.3%) and monthly income between RM4851 - RMI0970 is (42.0%). Majority members do not have medical conditions and the most primary symptoms were having chronic low back pain. Most of the members did not consult medical doctor regards to their primary symptom (60.8%). Most of the members were seeking for traditional & complimentary medicine (99.4%), the most common integrated modalities were Chinese medicine with physiotherapy and Chinese medicine with chiropractic. Conclusion: This study demonstrated the systematic data collection of sociodemographic characteristics and member self-reported primary symptoms implemented in a private traditional Chinese medicine center. This type of information can be used for service provision, future study planning, and marketing. The following are several of the important lessons learned: 1. Most members at Gf-Il-IS healthcare who seek for T&CM treatments are female, high educated, high income, conscious of general wellbeing. They mostly seek for pain management of chronic musculoskeletal disease. So, practitioners should make sure well prepared to treat those patients manage their symptoms. 2. Future research could explore how confidence and effectiveness in combinations of different CAM modalities such as physiotherapy and chiropractic could affects the disease outcomes, and whether it means further treatments would be welcome and more effective. 3. Future work will have to include a larger, and standardized data collection to look at sociodemographic characteristics and member self-reported primary symptoms.

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

Background: Acupuncture is part of the Traditional Chinese Medicine used to treat various disease in ancient time till now. According to the Traditional Chinese Medicine, acupuncture is where filiform needles used to insert at the certain acupoint location at the body to regulate the "Qi" and "Blood" of a person to achieved balance and recover back to healthy state. However, modem science said that the needle insertion able to stimulates the nervous system release chemical in the muscle, spinal cord and brain which further influence releasing of hormones to regulate the body. During this COV10-19 pandemic, many patients suffered post viral olfactory dysfunction with many failed to recover despite conventional medicine treatment. Acupuncture has become an alternate modality to treat post viral olfactory dysfunction and some research had been conducted to test the efficacy of it. In order for acupuncture to be use das alternative or complimentary treatment, research need to be reviewed to look into the methods of conduct and results before systematic review able to be done for testing the efficacy of acupuncture to treat post viral olfactory dysfunction (PVOD). Objective: The purpose of doing this scoping review was to identify the articles about effectiveness of acupuncture used to treat post viral olfactory dysfunction and evaluate the feasibility to do a systematic review in this area of research. Method: A scoping review done to search for the published articles about acupuncture used to treat P OVD from PubMed, ScienceDirect, Cochrane Library and China National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI). The key word search used were "acupuncture", "dry needling" or "needling" and "post viral olfactory dysfunction", "post viral olfactory disorder" or "loss of smell" while the Chinese Journal search' with the key words “针灸” and “嗅觉障碍”. Result : According to the search strategy used, a total hit of 54 articles achieved. After scrutinized with the inclusion and exclusion criteria, total of 8 articles were selected for full reading and further discussion. 3 out of the 8 articles were published in Chinese language while the other 5 published in English language. The 8 articles for review consist of 2 randomized controlled trial, J prospective study, J prospective control study, l historical cohort study and 3 case study. From these 8 articles, a table summary of comparison was done for further discussion. Conclusion: There is no unifying standard acupoints in treating PVOD however the study reliability able to be increased by using randomized control trial and larger sample size. It is suggested that control group be used in the study for efficacy of acupuncture in treating PVOD as comparison able to be made to rule out the chances of spontaneous recovery from PVOD. The odour material used for testing the smelling must be suitable for the local to prevent error of answering due to ignorance to the material. Furthermore, the type of diagnostic test also needs to be considered especially the Sniffin' Sticks Test as the components its measured are close to represent the severity and improvement of olfactory dysfunction. It is suggested to use the same practitioner to perform the acupuncture to reduce the variability which may affect the result because different practitioner will have different way of doing the manual manipulation in terms of the frequency of lifting and thrusting or twirling and rotating the needle. In order to run a systematic review, more randomized control trial need to be done to get sufficient data for analysis. Keywords: Acupuncture, Post Viral Olfactory Dysfunction, COVID-19, Anosmia

Background: Knee osteoarthritis is a common problem for which acupuncture provides effective analgesia. Although acupoint selection affects the effectiveness of acupuncture, the basic rules of acupoint selection are little understood. This study aims to investigate the principles of acupoint selection and characteristics of acupoints used for knee osteoarthritis. Objective: To determine the frequency of acupoint and meridian applied in treating knee osteoarthritis by using data mining analysis, and to provide valuable prescription in acupuncture treatment of knee osteoarthritis. Method: PubMed, China National Knowledge Infrastructure, and OVID were searched for clinical trials published in English or Chinese from January 2016 to Dec 2020 evaluating the effect of acupuncture on knee osteoarthritis, with or without methods of randomization and/or control. Results: A total of 99 articles were included, involving 51 acupoints, with a total frequency of 705 times. Among them, the acupoints with higher accumulative application frequency are Du Bi ST35 (93 times), Nei Xi Yan EX-LE04 (86 times), Xue Hai SPI0 (76 times), etc.; the commonly used acupoints are mainly distributed in Stomach meridian of Foot-Yang Ming, Spleen meridian of Foot-Tai Yin, Gall Bladder meridian of Foot-Shao Yang and non - meridian. Du Bi ST35 and Nei Xi Yan EX-LE04 is the most common combination of acupoints, and most of them are the combination of proximal acupoints and far and near acupoints; through the analysis of association rules, 20 groups of acupoint association rules were obtained. Conclusion: It is feasible to use data mining to analyse the selection and compatibility of acupuncture points for knee osteoarthritis, and this study can provide a corresponding reference for clinical treatment.

Background Traditional and Complementary Medicine (T&CM) services have already started since the year of 2007 in Malaysia. Despite this, the services offered are very limit ed to select ed Ministry of Health (MOH) hospitals and there are no T&CM services provided in Selangor stat e. Therefore, Selayang Hospital (HSEL) has taken the initiative to propose and start the first T&CM service in Selangor state, namely Acupuncture and Traditional Massage. However, prior to starting T&CM service, a survey study is needed to see the knowledge and acceptance of this service among patients (post stroke and chronic pain) treated at HSEL. Objective To determine the level of knowledge and acceptance of Acupuncture and Traditional Massage by post stroke and chronic pain patients who can benefit from Acupuncture and/ or Traditional Massage services in HSEL. Methodology This is a prospective cross sectional study of questionnaires distributed via QR code to access a Google Form. Once the study has been approved by the IMU Joint Committee, MREC and the hospital director, a pilot study was conducted by having 30 participants answer the questionnaires for validation. After the questionnaires have been validated by using content validity and Cronbach's Alpha test, the questionnaires were distributed to a total of 376 numbers of patients. Explanation regarding the study was given to the target population prior to consent. Subsequently, the questions were given to the consented participants to answer. About 20 minutes was required to complete the survey. The data was analyzed using SPSS software. Results There are only 46.5% of the respondents that achieved good general knowledge of T&CM, while 49.2% achieved good specific knowledge on T&CM service in MOH hospitals. 92 % of the respondents have a good attitude towards T&CM service to be set up at HSEL. A total of 81.9% of the respondents are willing to accept T&CM service if it is established at HSEL. Age, employment status, annual income, and treatment modality have a significant difference in general knowledge (p<0.05). There is no significant difference between demographic and specific knowledge (p>0.05). Only age group and treatment modality have significant difference with attitude (p<0.05). Duration of illness and treatment modality with acceptance toward T&CM service have significant difference (p<0.05). Distance from home to HSEL, annual income, duration of illness and treatment modality have significant difference (p<0.05) when compared with experience of respondents to T&CM service. Conclusion Post stroke and chronic pain patients in Selayang Hospital have a fair but limited knowledge on the MOH and modern medicine's standpoint towards T&CM and have limit ed awareness that there are T&CM services offered under MOH hospitals. However, they have good acceptance towards T&CM services being offered by MOH. Efforts to promote knowledge and awareness in this aspect would greatly benefit the establishment and expansion of T&CM services in Selayang Hospital. Keywords Knowledge and acceptance, acupuncture, traditional massage, post stroke, chronic pain