Acupressure plus education eases knee arthritis pain

Self-administered acupressure combined with knee health education helps relieve knee osteoarthritis pain says new research in JAMA Network Open. Osteoarthritis is difficult to treat so this is a promising way people can make a positive difference to their own health.

What is acupressure?

Acupressure involves applying pressure to specific points on the body to promote wellness and healing. The points are known as acupoints and are thought to be located along meridians or energy pathways in the body. The practice is based on the same concepts as acupuncture, but instead of using needles, people use fingers, hands, elbows or specialised tools to apply pressure.

What did the new study find?

A total of 314 adults aged over 50 years old with knee osteoarthritis were split into groups. Half had knee health education and two sessions about self-administered acupressure training. The other half had knee health education only. Data was collected from the participants over for 12 weeks.

Adverse events were reported by 13% of participants. All were “mild and self-resolved,” except for one participant who dropped out of the programme due to finger joint pain.

Overall, however, the findings are promising as people who had the acupressure training had lower pain scores and improved levels of quality of life compared to the other group.

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