ArticleJournal of alternative and complementary medicine (New York, N.Y.)2013
Do outcomes of acupuncture for back pain differ according to varying sociocultural contexts? The view from China.
Article in Journal of alternative and complementary medicine (New York, N.Y.), 2013. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 6 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
6 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 12 citations in OpenAlex.
- The Role of Acupuncture in the Management of Insomnia as a Major or Residual Symptom Among Patients With Active or Previous Depression: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2022Pooled it
- Enhancing symptom relief and quality of life in patients with stroke-induced spastic hemiplegia: a comprehensive systematic review and meta-analysis of acupuncture modalities' effectiveness.American journal of translational research · 2025Review
- Drug trials are more likely to disclose full placebo control information than non-drug trials: A cross-sectional study of participant information leaflets of placebo-controlled trials.Integrative medicine research · 2024Article
- Quantitative Global Survey Results of Acute Back Pain Sufferers Across Four Countries.Patient related outcome measures · 2023Article
- Does different information disclosure on placebo control affect blinding and trial outcomes? A case study of participant information leaflets of randomized placebo-controlled trials of acupuncture.BMC medical research methodology · 2018Article
- Cross-Cultural Brain Activity Differences Between True and Sham Acupuncture for Xerostomia During Head and Neck Cancer Radiotherapy.Integrative cancer therapiesArticle
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
6 authors at 3 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
objectivesWhat are the outcomes of acupuncture for back pain? According to well-regarded trials, acupuncture is little better for back pain than biomedicine, and active acupuncture is no better than sham acupuncture. These trials occurred in the West. Patients are inside the clinic a miniscule amount of time in relation to the time they are outside the clinic and enmeshed in the wider sociocultural context. Nevertheless, trials have largely overlooked potential effects of sociocultural context. The main objective of this article is to draw attention to designated features of sociocultural context that, as compared with outcomes obtained in the West, may enhance outcomes of acupuncture for back pain in China. Additional objectives of the article are to reconceptualize "sociocultural context" so that it is measurable, and to measure pre-existing acquaintance with acupuncture and other forms of Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) within the sociocultural context of China. DESIGN/SETTING/SUBJECTS: Back pain patients (N=86) were recruited from the Acupuncture Clinic and Pain Clinic of West China Hospital (Chengdu, Sichuan Province). Patients completed questionnaires on their use of TCM before they came to the Acupuncture Clinic and their families' use of TCM.
resultsMost patients had used TCM, and those who did so likely used it repeatedly, which indicated substantial acquaintance with TCM beliefs in the cultural context. Patients whose families used TCM were also likely to use it themselves, which indicated that TCM use was anchored in the social context of the family.
conclusionsAlthough multiple studies substantiate biologic mechanisms of acupuncture, there is not necessarily a fixed relationship between those mechanisms and people's experience of them. Rather, sociocultural context may interact with biologic mechanisms and mediate this experience. The theory proposed here explains why outcomes of acupuncture for back pain will potentially be more pronounced in the sociocultural context of China than in the West.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.