The Effects of Cosmetic Acupuncture

April 29, 2025 updated by: Chia-Hui Lin, China Medical University Hospital

Using Professional Intelligent Skin Analyzers to Analyze the Effects of Cosmetic Acupuncture on Skin Health and Aging: A Randomized Controlled Trial

The study recruited 40 subjects and divided them into an intervention group and a waiting list group in a 1:1 ratio using a randomized controlled trial. The changes in skin health and aging-related indicators before and after TCM cosmetic acupuncture treatment were analyzed. The subjects are of all genders and aged between 30 and 60 years old. The TCM cosmetic acupuncture treatment is arranged twice a week for a three-week course. The study will conduct a skin test before and after the TCM cosmetic acupuncture, and use the Antera 3D smart skin detector to comprehensively evaluate the subjects' skin condition. Antera 3D Skin Detector can detect multiple skin indicators, including wrinkle depth, skin tone uniformity and subtle changes in the skin surface, melanin, red pigment, etc. After the treatment, the subjects' acceptance and satisfaction with TCM cosmetic acupuncture were collected.

Study Overview

Status

Status

Indicates the current recruitment status or the expanded access status.
Recruiting

Conditions

Conditions

The disease, disorder, syndrome, illness, or injury that is being studied. On ClinicalTrials.gov, conditions may also include other health-related issues, such as lifespan, quality of life, and health risks.

Intervention / Treatment

Intervention / Treatment

A process or action that is the focus of a clinical study. Interventions include drugs, medical devices, procedures, vaccines, and other products that are either investigational or already available. Interventions can also include noninvasive approaches, such as education or modifying diet and exercise.

Study Type

Study Type

Describes the nature of a clinical study. Study types include interventional studies (also called clinical trials), observational studies (including patient registries), and expanded access.
Interventional

Enrollment (Estimated)

Enrollment

The number of participants in a clinical study. The "anticipated" enrollment is the target number of participants that the researchers need for the study.
40

Phase

Phase

The stage of a clinical trial studying a drug or biological product, based on definitions developed by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA). The phase is based on the study's objective, the number of participants, and other characteristics. There are five phases: Early Phase 1 (formerly listed as Phase 0), Phase 1, Phase 2, Phase 3, and Phase 4. Not Applicable is used to describe trials without FDA-defined phases, including trials of devices or behavioral interventions.
  • Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

This section provides the contact details for those conducting the study, and information on where this study is being conducted.

Study Contact

Study Contact

The name and contact information for the person who can answer enrollment questions for a clinical study. Each location where the study is being conducted may also have a specific contact, who may be better able to answer those questions.

Study Locations

  • Taiwan
      • Taichung, Taiwan, 40447
        • Recruiting
        • China Medical University Hospital
        • Contact:

Participation Criteria

Researchers look for people who fit a certain description, called eligibility criteria. Some examples of these criteria are a person's general health condition or prior treatments.

Eligibility Criteria

Eligibility Criteria

The key requirements that people who want to participate in a clinical study must meet or the characteristics they must have. Eligibility criteria consist of both inclusion criteria (which are required for a person to participate in the study) and exclusion criteria (which prevent a person from participating). Types of eligibility criteria include whether a study accepts healthy volunteers, has age or age group requirements, or is limited by sex.

Ages Eligible for Study

  • Adult

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Yes

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

  • both female and male
  • 30 to 60 years old
  • never had acupuncture beauty treatment, or the last time they had acupuncture beauty treatment has been more than six months.

Exclusion Criteria:

  • medical cosmetic fillers on their face
  • cosmetic surgery
  • needle sickness
  • afraid of acupuncture
  • wounds on the facial skin
  • poor wound healing
  • abnormal coagulation function
  • severe diabetes
  • keloids
  • dialysis
  • cancer patients undergoing chemotherapy or radiotherapy
  • pregnant

Study Plan

This section provides details of the study plan, including how the study is designed and what the study is measuring.

How is the study designed?

Design Details

  • Primary Purpose: Treatment
  • Allocation: Randomized
  • Interventional Model: Parallel Assignment
  • Masking: None (Open Label)

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm

Participant Group / Arm

A group or subgroup of participants in a clinical trial that receives a specific intervention/treatment, or no intervention, according to the trial's protocol.
Intervention / Treatment

Intervention / Treatment

A process or action that is the focus of a clinical study. Interventions include drugs, medical devices, procedures, vaccines, and other products that are either investigational or already available. Interventions can also include noninvasive approaches, such as education or modifying diet and exercise.
Experimental: Cosmetic acupuncture group
accept treatment session
Other: Acupuncture
Cosmetic acupuncture
Other: Waitinglist for cosmetic acupuncture group
wait for 3 weeks then accept the same treatment session
Other: Acupuncture
Cosmetic acupuncture

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Primary Outcome Measures

In a clinical study's protocol, the planned outcome measure that is the most important for evaluating the effect of an intervention/treatment. Most clinical studies have one primary outcome measure, but some have more than one.
Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Face Skin Texture
Time Frame: Intervention group: the 1st, 4th week; waiting list group: the 1st, 4th, and 7th week.
Professional Intelligent Skin Analyzers accurately locate the comparison before and after cosmetic acupuncture sessions, showing high accuracy and reproducibility, analyzing Ra value (unit: µm) as arithmetic mean roughness of the skin's contours.
Intervention group: the 1st, 4th week; waiting list group: the 1st, 4th, and 7th week.
Face Skin Color
Time Frame: Intervention group: the 1st, 4th week; waiting list group: the 1st, 4th, and 7th week.
Professional Intelligent Skin Analyzers accurately locate the comparison before and after cosmetic acupuncture sessions, showing high accuracy and reproducibility, analyzing L*a*b value (no unit) as the skin's color. (L*: Lightness, a*: Red/Green Value, b*: Blue/Yellow Value)
Intervention group: the 1st, 4th week; waiting list group: the 1st, 4th, and 7th week.
Face Pore Size
Time Frame: Intervention group: the 1st, 4th week; waiting list group: the 1st, 4th, and 7th week.
Professional Intelligent Skin Analyzers accurately locate the comparison before and after cosmetic acupuncture sessions, showing high accuracy and reproducibility, analyzing average pore volume (unit: mm²).
Intervention group: the 1st, 4th week; waiting list group: the 1st, 4th, and 7th week.

Secondary Outcome Measures

Secondary Outcome Measures

In a clinical study's protocol, a planned outcome measure that is not as important as the primary outcome measure for evaluating the effect of an intervention but is still of interest. Most clinical studies have more than one secondary outcome measure.
Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
The Questionnaire of satisfaction and acceptance of cosmetic acupuncture
Time Frame: Intervention group: the 4th week; waiting list group: the 7th week.
The questionnaire include three domains: 1. Visual Analogue Scale score measures pain intensity. The VAS consists of 10 points, with two end points representing 0 ("no pain") and 10 ("pain as bad as it could possibly be"). 2. The acceptance of cosmetic acupuncture has 0~4 points, 0 representing "unacceptable" and 4 representing "totally acceptable". 3. Facial Check Sheet(FCS) has 12 items about the satisfaction of the improvement of face appearance including wrinkles, laxity, facial shape, and pigmented spots, and so on. 0 representing "very dissatisfied" and 4 representing "very satisfied". Subjects can also choose "no need to pay attention" if they don't have the concerned problems of appearance.
Intervention group: the 4th week; waiting list group: the 7th week.

Collaborators and Investigators

This is where you will find people and organizations involved with this study.

Sponsor

Sponsor

The organization or person who initiates the study and who has authority and control over the study.
China Medical University Hospital

Study record dates

These dates track the progress of study record and summary results submissions to ClinicalTrials.gov. Study records and reported results are reviewed by the National Library of Medicine (NLM) to make sure they meet specific quality control standards before being posted on the public website.

Study Major Dates

Study Start (Actual)

Study Start

The actual date on which the first participant was enrolled in a clinical study. The "anticipated" study start date is the date that the researchers think will be the study start date.
April 10, 2025

Primary Completion (Estimated)

Primary Completion

The date on which the last participant in a clinical study was examined or received an intervention to collect final data for the primary outcome measure. Whether the clinical study ended according to the protocol or was terminated does not affect this date. For clinical studies with more than one primary outcome measure with different completion dates, this term refers to the date on which data collection is completed for all the primary outcome measures. The "anticipated" primary completion date is the date that the researchers think will be the primary completion date for the study.
March 31, 2026

Study Completion (Estimated)

Study Completion

The date on which the last participant in a clinical study was examined or received an intervention/treatment to collect final data for the primary outcome measures, secondary outcome measures, and adverse events (that is, the last participant's last visit). The "anticipated" study completion date is the date that the researchers think will be the study completion date.
March 31, 2026

Study Registration Dates

First Submitted

First Submitted

The date on which the study sponsor or investigator first submitted a study record to ClinicalTrials.gov. There is typically a delay of a few days between the first submitted date and the record's availability on ClinicalTrials.gov (the first posted date).
April 10, 2025

First Submitted That Met QC Criteria

First Submitted That Met QC Criteria

The date on which the study sponsor or investigator first submits a study record that is consistent with National Library of Medicine (NLM) quality control (QC) review criteria. The sponsor or investigator may need to revise and submit a study record one or more times before NLM's QC review criteria are met. It is the responsibility of the sponsor or investigator to ensure that the study record is consistent with the NLM QC review criteria.
April 29, 2025

First Posted (Actual)

First Posted

The date on which the study record was first available on ClinicalTrials.gov after National Library of Medicine (NLM) quality control (QC) review has concluded. There is typically a delay of a few days between the date the study sponsor or investigator submitted the study record and the first posted date.
May 1, 2025

Study Record Updates

Last Update Posted (Actual)

Last Update Posted

The most recent date on which changes to a study record were made available on ClinicalTrials.gov. There may be a delay between when the changes were submitted to ClinicalTrials.gov by the study's sponsor or investigator (the last update submitted date) and the last update posted date.
May 1, 2025

Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria

Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria

The most recent date on which the study sponsor or investigator submitted changes to a study record that are consistent with National Library of Medicine (NLM) quality control (QC) review criteria. It is the responsibility of the sponsor or investigator to ensure that the study record is consistent with the NLM QC review criteria.
April 29, 2025

Last Verified

Last Verified

The most recent date on which the study sponsor or investigator confirmed the information about a clinical study on ClinicalTrials.gov as accurate and current. If a study with a recruitment status of recruiting; not yet recruiting; or active, not recruiting has not been confirmed within the past 2 years, the study's recruitment status is shown as unknown.
April 1, 2025

More Information

Terms related to this study

Other Study ID Numbers

Other Study ID Numbers

Identifiers or ID numbers other than the NCT number that are assigned to a clinical study by the study's sponsor, funders, or others. These numbers may include unique identifiers from other trial registries and National Institutes of Health grant numbers.
  • CMUH114-REC2-018

Plan for Individual participant data (IPD)

Plan to Share Individual Participant Data (IPD)?

NO

Drug and device information, study documents

Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated drug product

No

Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated device product

No

product manufactured in and exported from the U.S.

No

This information was retrieved directly from the website clinicaltrials.gov without any changes. If you have any requests to change, remove or update your study details, please contact register@clinicaltrials.gov. As soon as a change is implemented on clinicaltrials.gov, this will be updated automatically on our website as well.

Clinical Trials on Aging

Clinical Trials on Acupuncture

Search Similar Trials

Sponsors and Collaborators

Medical Conditions

Drug Interventions

Conditions

Rare Diseases

Drug Interventions

Dietary Supplements

Sponsor/Collaborators

Locations

Cookie Settings

We use cookies to ensure that we give you the best experience on our website. For more details carefully read our Privacy and Cookies Policy. ...>>>You can change your preferences or withdraw your consent at any time by deleting the cookies from your website or computer as described in the policy. Please accept it and choose your preferences by ticking the corresponding boxes in the "Manage Settings" section below. Please carefully read our Terms of Service before you proceed with using any part of this website.
«Manage Settings