THE ASSESSMENT ON ABDOMINAL ACUPUNCTURE FOR CHRONIC NECK PAIN BASED ON GENERAL LINEAR MODEL

摘要

The purpose of this work is to assess the clinical effect of abdominal acupuncture measured mainly by Northwick Park Questionnaire (NPQ) with the general linear model. The data originates from a randomized control trial (RCT) on abdominal acupuncture for chronic neck pain, in which classic acupuncture was set as control. The baseline data showed no statistical difference between the groups (P>0.01). The NPQ of both groups declined after the treatment. And the analysis of the general linear model (GLM) indicated that the within-subjects effect originated from different checkpoints was statistical significant (P<0.01). However, the treatments were not significant factors for the treatment effect as a between-subjects effect in the GLM model (P=0.313). Therefore, we conclude that abdominal acupuncture is effective to chronic neck pain, but it has no superiority on treatment compared to classic acupuncture.