Auricular Acupressure Integrated With Mobile Device for Weight Reduction

Feasibility of Self-administered Auricular Acupressure Integrated With Mobile Device Reminders for Weight Reduction.

Obesity is a common global health problem. A three-arm randomised waitlist-controlled feasibility trial is proposed. A total of 59 subjects (19-21 subjects per arm) will be recruited. The three groups are AA plus smartphone application (experimental group); AA only (comparison group); and Waitlist control group. In the experimental group, seeds will be applied on six specific ear acupoints of the subjects by the researcher. Subjects will be requested to apply pressure on the acupoints thrice per day. They will install a smartphone App which will send out regular reminders for pressing, allow the subjects to input the number of bowel open, compliance rate, and difficulties entered during the process for timely advice. The total treatment period will be 8 weeks. Outcome measures will be conducted at baseline and postintervention at 8 weeks, including obesity and anthropometric index, leptin concentration and adiponectin level. Patient satisfaction towards the therapy, the use of the smartphone application and the implementation of the treatment protocol will be determined.

Study Overview

• Status: Completed
• Conditions: Obesity; Weight Loss; Mobile Application; Ear Acupressure
• Intervention / Treatment: Other: Auricular acupressure plus smartphone App; Other: Auricular acupressure

Detailed Description

Obesity is a common global health problem. It increases the risk of many chronic illnesses, such as hypertension, type 2 diabetes mellitus and cardiovascular diseases. Conventional approaches to alleviate obesity are medications, exercise, dietary control, behaviour modification therapy or bariatric surgeries. However, the safety of anti-obesity agents is a concern, and gastric bypass surgery and other bariatric surgeries also pose potential risks after operation. Auricular acupuncture therapy is frequently used to treat obesity. However, the use of needles for auricular acupuncture may be unacceptable to people. Some researchers attempted to adopt a combined approach by integrating auriculotherapy with diet restriction, and the effect solely attributed to auriculotherapy cannot be determined. On the other hand, auricular acupressure (AA) is a safe, noninvasive, inexpensive and easily self-administered approach that causes very few adverse effects. Previous evidence has demonstrated that AA is an effective intervention to reduce body weight, increase satiety and self-efficacy on weight control through the self-administration of seeds pressing several times per day, after the seeds are applied by the researchers on the ear acupoints. It is associated with the decreased leptin levels and an increase of adiponectin level in which these hormones are associated with weight loss. However, therapists may have difficulties to monitor the compliance of subjects to perform seed pressing which in turn affecting the intervention dosages. This study aims to evaluate the feasibility of self-administered AA integrated with mobile device reminders for weight reduction in individuals with overweightness or obesity. A three-arm randomised waitlist-controlled feasibility trial is proposed. A total of 59 subjects (19-21 subjects per arm) will be recruited. The three groups are AA plus smartphone application (experimental group); AA only (comparison group); and Waitlist control group. In the experimental group, seeds will be applied on six specific ear acupoints of the subjects by the researcher. Subjects will be requested to apply pressure on the acupoints thrice per day. They will install a smartphone App which will send out regular reminders for pressing, allow the subjects to input the number of bowel open, compliance rate, and difficulties entered during the process for timely advice. The total treatment period will be 8 weeks. Outcome measures will be conducted at baseline and postintervention at 8 weeks, including obesity and anthropometric index, leptin concentration and adiponectin level. Patient satisfaction towards the therapy, the use of the smartphone application and the implementation of the treatment protocol will be determined.

• Study Type: Interventional
• Enrollment (Actual): 59
• Phase: Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

Study Locations

• Hong Kong
  • Hong Kong, Hong Kong
    • School of Nursing, the Hong Kong Polytechnic University

Participation Criteria

Eligibility Criteria

• Ages Eligible for Study: 16 years and older (Adult, Older Adult)
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers: No
• Genders Eligible for Study: All

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

• Overweightness, with body mass index (BMI) ≥ 25.0 kg/m2 in accordance with the BMI classification of the World Health Organization (WHO)
• Subjects that have neither received other weight control measures (manoeuvres) nor experienced medical and/or drug history within the last 3 months
• No ear injury, such as inflammation or lesions, and no medical history of ear surgery within the last 6 months
• Smartphone user (IOS and android)

Exclusion criteria:

(1) diabetes, severe hypertension, heart disease or endocrine abnormalities,; (2) pregnancy; (3) eating disorders screened with a 5-item SCOFF questionnaire (Bradford et al. 2010); (4) psychiatric and mental disorders.

Study Plan

How is the study designed?

Design Details

• Primary Purpose: Treatment
• Allocation: Randomized
• Interventional Model: Parallel Assignment
• Masking: Single

Number of Arms

3

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm	Intervention / Treatment
Active Comparator: Treatment arm 1; Auricular acupressure (AA) plus smartphone App: Semen Vaccaria laccaria will be applied on one ear only, and seed plasters will be changed every 3 days to 4 days to the opposite ear. Subjects will be requested to apply pressure on the acupoints thrice per day. The subjects will install the smartphone App specifically designed for this study. The App will send out regular AA reminders to the subjects. The total treatment period will be 8 weeks.	Other: Auricular acupressure plus smartphone App; Semen Vaccaria laccaria will be kept in place by a piece of adhesive patch. Seeds will be applied on one ear only, and seed plasters will be changed every 3 days to 4 days to the opposite ear, that is, we will meet the subjects twice per week. Subjects will be requested to apply pressure on the acupoints thrice per day, preferably within 30 min before eating, pressing for 20 times using a constant rhythm to each point. Coaching on how to self-administer AA on the acupoints will be given to the subjects, and a return demonstration from the subjects will be required to ensure the skills are performed properly. The subjects will install the smartphone App specifically designed for this study. The App will send out regular AA reminders to the subjects. In addition, the subjects will be asked to input the number of bowel open and compliance with AA performance per day into the App. The total treatment period will be 8 weeks.
Active Comparator: Treatment arm 2; The participants will only receive AA treatment and are required to perform daily self-administered seeds pressing.	Other: Auricular acupressure; The participants will receive AA treatment and are required to perform daily self-administered seeds pressing, but no smartphone App will be provided, but a booklet containing relevant information will be provided to the subjects.
No Intervention: Treatment arm 3; The participants in the waitlist control group will maintain their usual dietary and exercising patterns.

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
body mass index	body mass index is defined as the body mass divided by the square of the body height, i.e. kg/meter square	up to 8 weeks

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Appetite parameters which include hunger, fullness and satiety level	Participants will be asked to compete the Visual Analogue Scale (VAS) before lunch and dinner meals taking an average for three consecutive days at each timepoints (baseline, and post-intervention at 8 weeks), using VAS scale to measure the appetite in terms of hunger, fullness and satiety level.	up to 8 weeks
Leptin concentration	leptin concentration will be measured in duplicate by using a commercial sandwich ELISA kit comprising ready-to-use components, which are either concentrated or lyophilised.	up to 8 weeks
Adiponectin level	Adiponectin level will be measured with a commercially available sandwich ELISA kit	up to 8 weeks
Participants' expectation	A 5-item participants' expectation questionnaire will be collected from the participants.	baseline
Patient satisfaction	Patient satisfaction towards the therapy, the use of the smartphone app and the implementation of the treatment protocol will be determined.	up to 8 weeks
Bowel open	bowel open per day	up to 8 weeks
Fat percentage	this include body fat percentage, visceral fat level, and segmental subcutaneous fat percentage	up to 8 weeks
waist hip ratio	It is the dimensionless ratio of the circumference of the waist to that of the hips, calculated as waist measurement divided by hip measurement	up to 8 weeks

Collaborators and Investigators

• Sponsor: The Hong Kong Polytechnic University
• Investigators: Principal Investigator: Lorna Suen, PhD, School of Nursing, the Hong Kong Polytechnic University

Publications and helpful links

General Publications

• Suen L, Wang W, Cheng KKY, Chua MCH, Yeung JWF, Koh WK, Yeung SKW, Ho JYS. Self-Administered Auricular Acupressure Integrated With a Smartphone App for Weight Reduction: Randomized Feasibility Trial. JMIR Mhealth Uhealth. 2019 May 29;7(5):e14386. doi: 10.2196/14386.

Study record dates

Study Major Dates

• Study Start (Actual): April 1, 2018
• Primary Completion (Actual): November 30, 2018
• Study Completion (Actual): November 30, 2018

Study Registration Dates

• First Submitted: February 12, 2018
• First Submitted That Met QC Criteria: February 16, 2018
• First Posted (Actual): February 22, 2018

Study Record Updates

• Last Update Posted (Actual): February 22, 2019
• Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria: February 20, 2019
• Last Verified: February 1, 2019

More Information

Terms related to this study

• Keywords: obesity; weight loss; smartphone application; ear acupressure
• Additional Relevant MeSH Terms: Body Weight Changes; Weight Loss; Body Weight
• Other Study ID Numbers: UADZ

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