Electro-acupuncture for Central Obesity: a Single Blinded Randomized Sham-controlled Clinical Trial
Electro-acupuncture for Central Obesity: a Single Blinded Randomized Sham-controlled Clinical Trial
In this study, a 8-week, single blinded, randomized controlled clinical trial will be conducted to examine the efficacy and safety of body acupuncture in the treatment of central obesity in Hong Kong.
This is a pilot single-blind, randomized, sham-controlled trial. 168 central obesity patients will be randomly assigned to acupuncture group or control group. The duration of the treatment will be 8 weeks with 2 session per week and the follow-up period will be 2 weeks.
Inclusion Criteria:
Patients who meet all of the following criteria are defined as eligible participants: men and women aged between 18 and 65 years old; BMI ≥ 25 kg/m2; central obesity, defined as WC of ≥ 90 cm in men and ≥ 80 cm in non-pregnant women according to ICD-10 [24]; not receiving any other weight control measures or any medical and/or drug history in last 3months.
Exclusion Criteria:
Patients who meet any of the following criteria should be excluded from the study: endocrine diseases, including thyroid disorder, pituitary disorder, sex gland disorder, etc.; heart diseases, including arrhythmia, heart failure, myocardial infarction, patients with pacemaker; allergy and immunology diseases; bleeding tendency; pregnant or lactating women; impaired hepatic or renal function; stroke or unable to exercise.