Health-related quality of life in a trial of acupuncture, sham acupuncture and conventional treatment for chronic sinusitis

Knut Stavem,Pål G Larsson,Edna Røssberg

doi:10.1186/1756-0500-1-37

Abstract

BackgroundAcupuncture is commonly used to treat chronic sinusitis, though there is little documentation on the effect. This study presents the health-related quality of life (HRQoL) outcomes in a trial comparing traditional Chinese acupuncture, sham acupuncture, and conventional treatment for chronic sinusitis.FindingsIn a three-armed single blind randomized controlled study, we recruited 65 patients with symptoms of sinusitis >3 months and signs of sinusitis on computed tomography (CT). Patients were randomized to one of three study arms: (1) 2–4 weeks of medication with antibiotics, corticosteroids, 0.9% sodium chloride solution, and local decongestants (n = 21), (2) ten treatments with traditional Chinese acupuncture (n = 25), or (3) ten treatments with minimal acupuncture at non-acupoints (n = 19). Change in HRQoL was assessed over 12 weeks using the Chronic Sinusitis Survey (CSS) and Short form 36 (SF-36) questionnaires.In the study, we found only a non-significant difference on the CSS symptom scale between conventional medical therapy and traditional Chinese acupuncture. On the SF-36 scale role-physical the change was larger in the conventional group than in the sham group (p = 0.02), and on the mental health scale the change in the conventional therapy arm was larger than in the traditional Chinese acupuncture group (p = 0.03). There was no difference in effect on HRQoL on any scale between the sham and traditional Chinese acupuncture groups.ConclusionThere was no clear evidence of the superiority of one treatment over another on short-term HRQoL outcomes, although there was a statistically non-significant advantage of conventional therapy in a few dimensions.

Highlights

Acupuncture is commonly used to treat chronic sinusitis, though there is little documentation on the effect
In the study we included a diseasespecific outcome measure, the Chronic sinusitis survey (CSS), which was not validated in Norwegian at the time, but that might be more sensitive to change than the other health-related quality of life (HRQoL) measures [4]
Completers, who responded to the sinusitis symptoms scale of the CSS at baseline and after 12 weeks (n = 47), were somewhat older, had had chronic sinusitis longer, and had better baseline CSS and Short form 36 (SF-36) scores on all subscales than dropouts (n = 18) after 12 weeks, only the differences on the SF-36 General health (p = 0.03) and Social functioning scales (p = 0.04)

Summary

Introduction

Acupuncture is commonly used to treat chronic sinusitis, though there is little documentation on the effect. This study presents the health-related quality of life (HRQoL) outcomes in a trial comparing traditional Chinese acupuncture, sham acupuncture, and conventional treatment for chronic sinusitis. Treatment of chronic sinusitis is a well-established procedure in traditional Chinese acupuncture, and acupuncture is commonly used to relieve sinusitis and nasal symptoms [1,2,3]. The symptoms of chronic sinusitis are not easy to measure or quantify, and health-related quality of life (HRQoL) has recently gained increasing awareness as an outcome measure for interventions in chronic sinusitis [46]. We reported only a nonsignificant advantage of conventional treatment compared with acupucture on symptoms in a three-armed randomized study for CT-verified chronic sinusitis [10]. We report the full HRQoL outcomes from this trial of conventional medical treatment, traditional Chinese acupuncture and minimal acupuncture at non-acupoints for CT-verified chronic sinusitis In the study we included a diseasespecific outcome measure, the Chronic sinusitis survey (CSS), which was not validated in Norwegian at the time, but that might be more sensitive to change than the other HRQoL measures [4].

Methods

Results

Discussion

Conclusion