The journal of alternative and complementary medicine : research on paradigm, practice, and policy
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J Altern Complement Med · Mar 2017
Randomized Controlled Trial Multicenter StudyLifestyle Advice and Self-Care Integral to Acupuncture Treatment for Patients with Chronic Neck Pain: Secondary Analysis of Outcomes Within a Randomized Controlled Trial.
Lifestyle advice is widely considered as an integral component of acupuncture treatment. However, it is unclear whether lifestyle advice and related self-care are important for sustaining benefit over the longer term. In a novel secondary analysis of trial data, this paper explores the nature and impact of acupuncture-related diagnosis, and associated lifestyle advice and self-care, in patients with chronic neck pain. ⋯ Acupuncture-related lifestyle advice helped patients improve the way they live and care for themselves and enhanced self-efficacy and ability to use what they had learnt. These changes were associated with reductions in pain and disability at 12 months.