The effects of acupuncture treatment for smoking cessation: Preliminary study for high school student

ABSTRACT

BACKGROUND: Smoking is the single most considerable factor, which may likely affect one's health most adversely. Therefore, an effective control upon smoking has been the most important issue for all of the practitioners. Furthermore, the latters concern an the alternative medicine has been steadily mounting these days. Accordingly, a series of clinical group study has been mapped aut in order to clarify the effect and the outcome of acupuncture treatment and its rate of success. METHODS: The survey has been conducted fram April 7th, 1998 for six months with the voluntary help of 130 students as our study objects, who were the 1st, 2nd and 3rd graders at two metropolitan high-schools in Seoul A basic questionnaire has been prepared and collected at the first interview. The acupuncture treatment has been alternately administered at each side of ears once a week for the respective object-students and the information had been questioned in the survey. When 5 months lapsed with no treatment after the initial four weeks of intensive application, a further follow-up survey was repeated all over again(once every week for 4weeks and another after 6 months). For the analysis of our finding, the SAS V6.12 has been used together with the one way ANOVA test, t-test, and Cochran-Armitage trend test. RESULTS: Those who managed to stop smoking after the acupuncture treatment of one week, four weeks and six months respectively were found as follows; 2 students(61%), 12 students(37.5%), and 8 students(25%), proving that the success rate for smoking cessation after six months was 25%. Those who decreased their number of smoking more than half were; 13 students(39.4%), 15 students(46.9%), 25 students(75%). The number of withdrawal symptom and the smoking cessation as well as the smoking reduction rate were not found co-related each other. The frequency of their smoking, the frequency of the smoking attempt, the period of their abstinence from smoking, the facts whether their family-members of relatives smoked or not, the FTQ(Fagerstrom Tolerance Questionnaire), the frequency of their drinking and the motivation types of smoking(Why test) were found not influential upon the change of smoking tastes and their intensity of smoking wish by the treatment of the auricular acupuncture. CONCLUSIONS: The change of smoking taste and the change on the intensity of smoking wish as the outcome of acupuncture treatment for the stop-smoking has been statistically siganificant.