Acupuncture in medicine : journal of the British Medical Acupuncture Society
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The Massachusetts General Hospital Acupuncture Sensation Scale (MASS) is a tool to measure needle sensations. The aims of the present study were to develop a Chinese version and to assess its psychometric properties. ⋯ A 12-descriptor C-MMASS was established and shown to be a reliable and valid tool in reporting needle sensations associated with deqi among healthy young Chinese people.
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Acupuncture received a positive recommendation in the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) clinical guideline for low back pain (LBP). However, no such recommendation was forthcoming in the NICE clinical guideline for osteoarthritis (OA). Importantly, the two guidelines adopted different treatment comparators in their economic analyses of acupuncture; in the LBP guideline 'usual care' was used (with no consideration of placebo/sham interventions), whereas 'sham acupuncture' was the comparator in the OA guideline. ⋯ The treatment comparator chosen in economic evaluations of acupuncture therapy is likely to be a strong determinant of the cost-effectiveness results. Different comparators used in the OA and LBP NICE guidelines may have led to the divergent recommendations in the guidelines.