Other Titles

Promoting health and cultural diversity

Abstract

Session presented on Sunday, July 26, 2015:

Purpose: There is limited information about outcomes of care, resource utilization, and associated costs for patients who receive acupuncture in integrative health settings. The purpose of this study was to address this gap through the following aims: To examine: (1) changes in patient pain levels pre/post acupuncture treatments; (2) relationships between receiving acupuncture treatments (number of treatments, length of time, select demographic factors, (age, gender), pain level pre and post acupuncture treatments; (3) relationships between number of treatments, length of time, age, gender, pain level (pre/post acupuncture treatments) and provider visits (pre/post acupuncture treatments); and (4) relationship between acupuncture and provider visit costs within a integrative healthcare system.

Methods: Correlational repeated measure design using retrospective data abstracted from medical records of a purposive sample of adults (n = 80) who received acupuncture treatments for pain at a health system integrative clinic. Descriptive and inferential statistics were used to describe the sample and examine the relationships between the variables.

Results: Statistically significance changes in pain level pre acupuncture M= 6.89 + 1.87 and post treatment M = 3.84 + 2.3 F = (8, 71) = 3.75, p < .05. Multivariate regression indicates the overall model (number of treatments, treatment duration, age, gender, pain level pre acupuncture treatments) accounts for 22% of the variance in post pain level; pretreatment pain level significantly contributed to the model ?? = 4.16, p < .05. For the 34 patients with pre/post provider visit data, statistically significant positive relationships were found between treatments & duration of acupuncture treatments r = .499, pre and post pain levels, r = .379; an inverse relationship between number of provider visits post treatment and age, r = -.351, p < .05.

Conclusion: Acupuncture treatments can decrease chronic pain and exposure to its availability can enhance patient outcomes. Further research is needed to identify ways to increase collaboration across disciplines to incorporate acupuncture to increase cost effective and quality care.

Author Details

Sherry I. Shoemaker, RN

Sigma Membership

Zeta Mu at-Large

Type

Presentation

Format Type

Text-based Document

Study Design/Type

Descriptive/Correlational

Research Approach

N/A

Keywords:

integrative, acupuncture, new paradigm

Conference Name

26th International Nursing Research Congress

Conference Host

Sigma Theta Tau International

Conference Location

San Juan, Puerto Rico

Conference Year

2015

Rights Holder

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All permission requests should be directed accordingly and not to the Sigma Repository.

All submitting authors or publishers have affirmed that when using material in their work where they do not own copyright, they have obtained permission of the copyright holder prior to submission and the rights holder has been acknowledged as necessary.

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Proxy-submission

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Onsite integrative clinics: Acupuncture, positive patient outcomes, frequency of provider visits

San Juan, Puerto Rico

Session presented on Sunday, July 26, 2015:

Purpose: There is limited information about outcomes of care, resource utilization, and associated costs for patients who receive acupuncture in integrative health settings. The purpose of this study was to address this gap through the following aims: To examine: (1) changes in patient pain levels pre/post acupuncture treatments; (2) relationships between receiving acupuncture treatments (number of treatments, length of time, select demographic factors, (age, gender), pain level pre and post acupuncture treatments; (3) relationships between number of treatments, length of time, age, gender, pain level (pre/post acupuncture treatments) and provider visits (pre/post acupuncture treatments); and (4) relationship between acupuncture and provider visit costs within a integrative healthcare system.

Methods: Correlational repeated measure design using retrospective data abstracted from medical records of a purposive sample of adults (n = 80) who received acupuncture treatments for pain at a health system integrative clinic. Descriptive and inferential statistics were used to describe the sample and examine the relationships between the variables.

Results: Statistically significance changes in pain level pre acupuncture M= 6.89 + 1.87 and post treatment M = 3.84 + 2.3 F = (8, 71) = 3.75, p < .05. Multivariate regression indicates the overall model (number of treatments, treatment duration, age, gender, pain level pre acupuncture treatments) accounts for 22% of the variance in post pain level; pretreatment pain level significantly contributed to the model ?? = 4.16, p < .05. For the 34 patients with pre/post provider visit data, statistically significant positive relationships were found between treatments & duration of acupuncture treatments r = .499, pre and post pain levels, r = .379; an inverse relationship between number of provider visits post treatment and age, r = -.351, p < .05.

Conclusion: Acupuncture treatments can decrease chronic pain and exposure to its availability can enhance patient outcomes. Further research is needed to identify ways to increase collaboration across disciplines to incorporate acupuncture to increase cost effective and quality care.