Trial reportJournal of general internal medicine2020
Individual vs. Group Delivery of Acupuncture Therapy for Chronic Musculoskeletal Pain in Urban Primary Care-a Randomized Trial.
Trial report in Journal of general internal medicine, 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. It is linked to trial NCT02456727 (Acupuncture Approaches to Decrease Disparities in Outcomes of Pain Treatment - A Two Arm Comparative Effectiveness Trial), which is not on this map. Cited by 17 papers, 2 of them syntheses 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.
Acupuncture Approaches to Decrease Disparities in Outcomes of Pain Treatment - A Two Arm Comparative Effectiveness Trial
Who cites it
17 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 37 citations in OpenAlex.
- Models of care for managing non-specific low back pain.The Cochrane database of systematic reviews · 2025Pooled it
- Pooled it
- Group-Based Integrative Pain Management: Feasibility of a Factorial Randomized Trial in Safety-Net Primary Care.Journal of primary care & community healthTrial
- Evaluating the outcomes and patient experience of group and individual acupuncture in an NHS cancer care setting: a mixed-methods study.Supportive care in cancer : official journal of the Multinational Association of Supportive Care in Cancer · 2025Article
- Exploring Physician and Patient Perspectives on Expectations and Role Models Towards Chronic Pain Treatment in General Practice: A Qualitative Cross-Sectional Study.Healthcare (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Article
- SIO-ASCO guideline on integrative medicine for cancer pain management: implications for racial and ethnic pain disparities.JNCI cancer spectrum · 2023Article
- Acupuncture for chronic low back pain in older adults: Design and protocol for the BackInAction pragmatic clinical trial.Contemporary clinical trials · 2023Article
- Multi-stakeholder perspectives on managing insomnia in cancer survivors: recommendations to reduce barriers and translate patient-centered research into practice.Journal of cancer survivorship : research and practice · 2021Article
- Barriers and Facilitators to Implementing Bundled Acupuncture and Yoga Therapy to Treat Chronic Pain in Community Healthcare Settings: A Feasibility Pilot.Journal of alternative and complementary medicine (New York, N.Y.) · 2021Article
- Acupuncture Intervention Protocol: Consensus Process for a Pragmatic Randomized Controlled Trial of Acupuncture for Management of Chronic Low Back Pain in Older Adults: An NIH HEAL Initiative Funded Project.Global advances in health and medicine · 2021Article
- The Trials and Tribulations of Selecting Comparison Groups in Randomized Trials of Nonpharmacological Complementary and Integrative Health Interventions.Journal of alternative and complementary medicine (New York, N.Y.) · 2020Article
- "It Gave Me Hope" Experiences of Diverse Safety Net Patients in a Group Acupuncture Intervention for Painful Diabetic Neuropathy.Health equity · 2020Article
- Group Acupuncture Therapy With Yoga Therapy for Chronic Neck, Low Back, and Osteoarthritis Pain in Safety Net Setting for an Underserved Population: Design and Rationale for a Feasibility Pilot.Global advances in health and medicine · 2020Article
- Academic Consortium for Integrative Medicine & Health Commentary to CMS; RE: National Coverage Analysis (NCA) Tracking Sheet for Acupuncture for Chronic Low Back Pain (CAG-00452N).Global advances in health and medicine · 2019Article
- Group-Based Integrative Pain Management in Primary Care: A Study Protocol for Multilevel Interventions to Address Health Disparities.Global advances in integrative medicine and healthArticle
- Recruitment and Retention for an Acupuncture Trial in an Underrepresented 65 and Older Population With Chronic Low Back Pain.Global advances in integrative medicine and healthArticle
- Group Acupuncture Therapy With Yoga Therapy for Chronic Neck, Low Back, and Osteoarthritis Pain in Safety Net Settings for an Underserved Population: A Feasibility Pilot Study.Global advances in integrative medicine and healthArticle
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
11 authors at 3 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundAcupuncture has been shown to be effective for the treatment of chronic musculoskeletal back, neck, and osteoarthritis pain. However, access to acupuncture treatment has been limited in medically underserved and low-income populations.
objectiveAcupuncture therapy delivered in groups could reduce cost and expand access. We compared the effectiveness of group versus individual acupuncture for pain and function among ethnically diverse, low-income primary care patients with chronic musculoskeletal pain.
designThis was a randomized comparative effectiveness non-inferiority trial in 6 Bronx primary care community health centers. Participants with chronic (> 3 months) back, neck, or osteoarthritis pain were randomly assigned to individual or group acupuncture therapy for 12 weeks.
participantsSeven hundred seventy-nine participants were randomized. Mean age was 54.8 years. 35.3% of participants identified as black and 56.9% identified as Latino. Seventy-six percent were Medicaid insured, 60% reported poor/fair health, and 37% were unable to work due to disability.
interventionsParticipants received weekly acupuncture treatment in either group or individual setting for 12 weeks. MAIN MEASURES: Primary outcome was pain interference on the Brief Pain Inventory at 12 weeks; secondary outcomes were pain severity (BPI), physical and mental well-being (PROMIS-10), and opiate use. Outcome measures were collected at baseline, 12 and 24 weeks. KEY
results37.5% of individual arm and 30.3% in group had > 30% improvement in pain interference (d = 7.2%, 95% CI - 0.6%, 15.1%). Non-inferiority of group acupuncture was not demonstrated for the primary outcome assuming a margin of 10%. In the responder analysis of physical well-being, 63.1% of individual participants and 59.5% of group had clinically important improvement at 12 weeks (d = 3.6%, 95% CI - 4.2%, 11.4%).
conclusionsBoth individual and group acupuncture therapy delivered in primary care settings reduced chronic pain and improved physical function at 12 weeks; non-inferiority of group was not shown.
trial registrationClinicaltrials.gov # NCT02456727.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
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.