Efficacy of Electro-acupuncture for Abdominal Obesity: Study for a Randomized Controlled Trial

The Efficacy and Safety of Electro-acupuncture for Abdominal Obesity: Original Study for a Multicenter, Randomized, Sham-controlled Trial

Electro-acupuncture provides stimulation to acupoints, and has been widely used to treat abdominal obesity in China despite of lack of high-level evidence for treatment efficacy. The study will investigate whether the electroacupuncture can alleviate clinical symptoms and the mechanism of action in patients with abdominal obesity.

The study will be a randomized controlled trial from May 2021 to December 2022, including 68 participants with abdominal obesity. The participants will be randomly divided into 2 groups in a 1:1 allocation ratio.The intervention group will receive electroacupuncture; the control group will receive sham acupuncture. Each treatment will last 12 weeks, including 8 weeks of intervention period and 24 weeks of follow-up. The primary outcome is the waist circumference (WC), the secondary outcomes include weight, body mass index (BMI), hipline, waist-hip-ratio (WHR), Insulin resistance index (IRI), blood fat, metabolomics will be used analysis the mechanism. The adverse events will be recorded during the intervention and follow-up period.

Inclusion Criteria:

• Patients recruited for this study should meet the following inclusion criteria:

  1.Satisfying the criteria for the diagnosis of abdominal obesity; 2.18 years old≤age≤55 years old; 3.Being able to fully understand and voluntarily sign informed consent.

Exclusion Criteria:

• Patients with any of the following criteria will be excluded from the study:

  1. Presence of endocrine disorders such as: polycystic ovary syndrome; Cushing's syndrome; uncorrected thyroid disease.
  2. Presence of diabetes mellitus, or hypertension, or abnormal liver and kidney functions, or mental diseases.
  3. Pregnant or lactating state, women who plan to become pregnant within 12 weeks.
  4. History of bulimia, anorexia, or any other eating disorders.
  5. Use of medications in the past 3 months, such as diet drugs, corticosteroids, antidepressants, which may affect weight or appetite.
  6. History of surgical weight loss, postoperative adhesions.
  7. History of participating in a clinical study of weight loss or any other therapies to lose weight in the past 3 months.
  8. Unable to cooperate with the research caused by other diseases or reasons.
  9. Received acupuncture within 6 months before enrollment