Association Between Acupuncture and Knee Surgery for Osteoarthritis: A Korean, Nationwide, Matched, Retrospective Cohort Study

Frontiers in Medicine

Yeoncheol Park¹  In-Hyuk Ha²  Eun-Jung Kim³  Dongwoo Nam³  Hyun-Woo Cho⁴  Joon-Shik Shin⁵  Jinho Lee⁵  Wonil Koh⁵  Byeong-Gu Gang⁵  Me-riong Kim⁶  Kyungwon Kang⁶  Yoon Jae Lee⁶ 

[1] Moxibustion, College of Korean Medicine, Dongguk University, Gyeongju, South Korea;Moxibustion, Kyung Hee University Hospital at Gangdong, Seoul, South Korea;;Department of Acupuncture &Haeundae Jaseng Hospital of Korean Medicine, Busan, South Korea;Jaseng Hospital of Korean Medicine, Seoul, South Korea;Jaseng Spine and Joint Research Institute, Jaseng Medical Foundation, Seoul, South Korea;

关键词: knee osteoarthritis;    knee surgery;    acupuncture;    National Health Insurance Service-National Sample Cohort (NHIS-NSC);    respective cohort study;   

DOI  :  10.3389/fmed.2020.524628

来源: DOAJ

【 摘 要 】

Objectives: The present study was undertaken to investigate the relationship between acupuncture therapy and surgery rate.Design: Matched, retrospective cohort study.Materials and Methods: From nationwide health insurance data (2002–2013 cohort data published by the National Health Insurance Service of Korea), patients with new cases of knee osteoarthritis that occurred between January 1, 2004 and December 31, 2010 were analyzed. Patients were divided into an acupuncture group (AG) and a control group (CG), based on records of acupuncture therapy. Propensity scores were calculated by using gender, age, income level, and Charlson comorbidity index (CCI), with the groups matched at a ratio of 1:3 (AG:CG). The final analysis period was 2 years after the first acupuncture therapy for AG and 2 years after initial diagnosis for CG; surgery rates were compared between the two groups. Stratified analyses were performed based on age, gender, and income level; sensitivity analyses were performed based on the frequency and duration of acupuncture therapy.Results: Propensity score-matched AG and CG included 8,605 and 25,815 subjects, respectively. Post-matching surgery rates were 0.26 and 0.93% in AG and CG, respectively. For all age groups, AG showed a lower surgery rate than CG. In the analysis based on gender, the female group showed a significantly lower hazard ratio of 0.225. In analysis based on income level, the results of the entire group were significant, with the lower income group showing the lowest hazard ratio. In sensitivity analyses, AG tended to show a lower surgery rate than CG.Conclusions: The present study demonstrated that acupuncture therapy is associated with a low rate of surgery for knee osteoarthritis. Additional studies are needed to support this conclusion.

【 授权许可】

Unknown