Short-term and long-term effectiveness of acupuncture and Tuina on knee osteoarthritis: study protocol for a randomized controlled trial

Zhao R, Ma P, Liu B, Yu C, Zhang H, Lv Q, Yang D, Yang Y, Liu H, Wang F, Yin C, Su S, Wang H, Wang X, Yan S · Frontiers in Neurology · 2023 November 24

DOI 10.3389/fneur.2023.1301217

Objective

To investigate the short-term and long-term effectiveness of acupuncture and tuina compared with home-based exercise for treating knee osteoarthritis.

Conclusions

The study presents a protocol designed to evaluate whether acupuncture and tuina improve knee osteoarthritis symptoms, function, quality of life, and psychological outcomes in the short and long term.

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Insights

This trial compares acupuncture, tuina, and home exercise to determine whether hands-on traditional treatments provide lasting relief for knee osteoarthritis.

This multicentre randomised clinical trial will recruit adults with knee osteoarthritis from outpatient clinics at traditional Chinese medicine hospitals in China. Participants will be randomly allocated to receive acupuncture, tuina, or home-based exercise, with outcomes assessed after treatment and at longer-term follow-up. The main measure will assess clinically meaningful improvement in knee pain, while additional measures will evaluate knee function, stiffness, arthritis confidence, quality of life, psychological wellbeing, and adverse events. The study is designed to clarify whether acupuncture or tuina offers advantages over home exercise for reducing knee osteoarthritis symptoms in both the short and longer term. Its broad outcome assessment will also examine whether any symptom improvements are accompanied by better physical function, self-management confidence, health-related quality of life, and psychological health.