Authors: (including presenting author): :
Ho CC(1), Poon SL(1), Lai WY(1), Hui CY(1), Lam PL(1), Kong CHB(1)
Affiliation: :
(1)Physiotherapy Department, David Trench Rehabilitation Centre/ Queen Mary Hospital
Keyword 2: :
Empowerment program
Keyword 3: :
Knee Osteoarthritis
Keyword 4: :
Pain reduction
Keyword 5: :
Perceived improvement
Introduction: :
Knee osteoarthritis (OA) poses significant public health and healthcare utilization challenges. Effective non-pharmacological strategies, such as structured exercise, patient education, and lifestyle changes, have sparked interest in complementary therapies like acupressure, which uses manual pressure on specific points for symptom relief.
Objectives: :
This service evaluation aimed to assess the effectiveness of combining self-acupressure with a patient empowerment program among patients with knee OA.
Methodology: :
An observational between-groups comparison was conducted at the Physiotherapy Department, David Trench Rehabilitation Centre from July 2024 to June 2025. Fifty-six community-dwelling adults aged over 50 years with a diagnosis of knee OA were recruited into a group empowerment program. Exclusion criteria were previous knee or lower limb surgery, acute knee injury within the past six months, prolonged morning stiffness exceeding 30 minutes, and signs of acute knee inflammation or rapid deterioration. All participants (intervention group A and B) received four weekly sessions consisting of 15 minutes of education and 45 minutes of exercise. Intervention group B, consisting of half of the participants, received an additional 10 minutes of self-administered acupressure, supervised by a registered physiotherapist. The selected acupoints (ST34, ST35, ST36, SP9, SP10, GB34, EX-LE2, and EX-LE4) were adopted from a previous study by Shourabi et al. (2024). The primary outcome was the Numerical Pain Rating Scale (NPRS). Secondary outcomes included the Numeric Global Rating of Change Scale (NGRCS), the Knee Injury and Osteoarthritis Outcome Score (KOOS), and the 30-second sit-to-stand test.
Result & Outcome: :
Both groups demonstrated a statistically significant decrease in NPRS and KOOS pain subscale scores. Intervention group A demonstrated statistically significant reduction in NPRS scores (p = 0.002), improvement in KOOS pain subscale scores (p = 0.004), and improvement in quality-of-life subscale scores (p = 0.043) post-intervention. Intervention group B demonstrated statistically significant reduction in NPRS scores (p < 0.001) and improvement in KOOS pain subscale scores (p < 0.001) post-intervention. Between-group analysis showed that intervention group B obtained statistically significantly better results than intervention group A in NPRS change (p = 0.032), NGRCS (p < 0.001), and KOOS pain subscale scores change (p = 0.017). In conclusion, self-acupressure may confer additional benefits in pain reduction and perceived improvement in overall condition among patients with knee OA.
