A number of studies have examined the accuracy and precision of acupuncture point location across various point location methods. Accuracy of point location is essential for safe, efficacious and ...reliable treatments and valid reproducible research outcomes. This review aims to identify, summarize, compare and critically appraise available empirical studies relating to the accuracy and precision of acupuncture point location. A comprehensive search of five electronic databases, World Journal of Traditional Chinese Medicine and Google scholar was performed for studies investigating accuracy and precision in acupuncture point location. 771 studies were screened of which 14 studies were identified, including 9 studies that investigated the localization of acupoints and 5 studies that examined the cun measurement system. Considerable variation in localization of acupoints was reported among qualified medical acupuncturists. Variation in point location among qualified non-medical acupuncturists is unknown due to lack of any identified study. The directional method was found to be significantly inaccurate and imprecise in all studies that evaluated the method. Suitability of other methods for clinical and research purposes and influencing factors such as education, training and experience were identified as topics for future studies.
Background
The proportional method of acupuncture point location (APL) currently taught at Endeavor College of Natural Health and advocated by the World Health Organization Regional Office for the ...Western Pacific (WPRO) was found to be imprecise and/or inaccurate in previous student studies. The ruler and elastic methods of APL were identified as more accurate or precise than the proportional method of APL but were not well received by student participants. Use of an adjustable ruler may overcome barriers to uptake of the more accurate APL methods. This pilot study was the first to evaluate the comparative accuracy of the adjustable ruler and the proportional methods of APL in first-year students at a major Australian acupuncture training college.
Methods
After 10 weeks of in-class instruction in both proportional and adjustable ruler methods of APL, student participants (n = 14) attempted location of three acupuncture points (LI10, SP6 and ST38) on a volunteer using both APL methods of interest. A self-administered questionnaire and lecturer field notes elucidated attitudes to implementation of both APL methods.
Results
Points marked using the adjustable ruler were closer to the correct location than those marked using the proportional method across all three acupuncture points. Students and lecturers rated the adjustable ruler more highly than the proportional method for ease of learning and ease of use.
Conclusion
Encouraging results with the adjustable ruler method warrant further larger scale studies. Use of the adjustable ruler method of APL should be considered for use in point location training at educational institutions teaching traditional acupuncture.
Excessive alcohol consumption is an increasing issue internationally. Pricing strategies, including discount restrictions, have been identified as one of the most effective policy means by which to ...reduce heavy alcohol consumption. In Australia, cross‐promotional alcohol discounts are increasingly used by supermarket chains as a marketing tool. The purpose of the present study is to provide preliminary data on the nature and extent of cross‐promotional alcohol discounting in the Australian grocery sector.
A purposive sample of 34 supermarkets in Australia's three largest cities was selected and minor grocery purchases made to uncover the prevalence and level of cross‐promotional alcohol discounting.
Cross‐promotional ‘bundled’ discounts were very common with 33 of the 34 supermarkets offering a ‘two for one’ discount on bottles of wine. Even with minor purchases (mean purchase $1.35), the mean value of discounts received was substantial ($16.23).
These results appear to be consistent with claims that major supermarket chains are using alcohol discounts as loss leaders to entice new consumers.
These strategies are antithetical to public health strategies aimed at reducing excessive alcohol consumption. Further examination of the impact of major retailers on public health initiatives is warranted, particularly in light of increasing retailer concentration.
Use of complementary and alternative medicine (CAM), particularly herbal and alternative medicine supplements, for preconception care and fertility management is becoming increasingly common.
To ...determine the factors associated with the use of CAMs by women for preconception care.
412 women who had visited an antenatal 'first visit' clinic situated at a Brisbane obstetric hospital or had visited a private ultrasound clinic in the same city for the purposes of a routinely indicated ultrasound scan in the first trimester were recruited into the study. Data were collected via a cross-sectional questionnaire.
Complementary and alternative medicines (not including multivitamins) were used during preconception by 8.3% of women attending for obstetric care. Approximately half (55.8%) of women taking herbal and alternative medicines ceased these medications on discovery of their pregnancy, though fewer (17.4%) ceased taking multivitamin supplements. Baseline characteristics (age, education and income) are not significantly different between CAM users and those who did not take CAMs preconception. The results of statistical analyses showed that only visiting a practitioner to check for health (OR = 2.00; 95% CI: 1.33, 3.00) and trying to lose weight prior to pregnancy (OR = 1.53; 95% CI: 1.00, 2.36) were the key predictors for women using CAM during preconception.
Women do consume CAMs to enhance preconception care to a certain extent, though CAM users remain in the minority. CAM users also tend to cease use once pregnant.
Massage is the largest complementary medicine profession in Australia, in terms of public utilisation, practitioner distribution, and number of practitioners, and is being increasingly integrated ...into the Australian health care system. However, despite the increasing importance of massage therapists in Australian health care delivery, or the increased practice and education obligations this may entail, there has been little exploration of practice, research, and education characteristics of the Australian massage therapist workforce.
To identify practice, research, and education characteristics among the Australian massage therapist workforce.
The Australian massage therapy profession.
301 randomly selected members of the Association of Massage Therapists (Australia).
A 15-item, cross-sectional telephone survey.
Massage therapists' demographic information, practice characteristics, and education and research characteristics.
Most respondents (73.8%) worked 20 hours per week or less practising massage, nearly half of all respondents (46.8%) treated fewer than 10 massage clients per week, and over three-quarters (81.7%) of respondents were self-employed. Massage therapy was the sole source of income for just over half (55.0%) of the study respondents. Only 5.7% of respondents earned over the average wage ($50,000) through their massage activities. Nearly half of all respondents (43.3%) reported regularly exceeding their continuing professional education (CPE) quota mandated by their professional association. However, 21.1% reported struggling to achieve their CPE quota each year. Over one-third of respondents (35.6%) were not interested in acquiring further CPE points beyond minimum requirements. Respondents were significantly more likely to have an active approach to research if they had higher income (p = .015). Multivariate analysis showed factors associated with access to CPE to be the only significant predictors for increased CPE.
The massage profession in Australia remains largely part-time and practitioners earn less than the average Australian wage. The factors that underlie research and education involvement appear to be highly individualised and, therefore, policies targeting specific groups may be arbitrary and ineffective.
Chinese medicine practitioners (CMPs) play an important part in rural and regional Australian healthcare. A survey was conducted to investigate referral practices between Chinese medicine (CM) and ...conventional primary health care practitioners in this region.
A 27-item questionnaire was sent to all 1486 general practitioners (GPs) currently practising in rural and regional Divisions of General Practice in New South Wales, Australia. This survey explored GP opinions, perceptions and practices in relation to complementary and alternative medicine or Chinese medicine specifically.
A total of 585 GPs completed the questionnaire. Forty-nine were returned as 'no longer at this address', resulting in an adjusted response rate of 40.7%. One in ten GPs (9.9%) had referred their patients to CMPs at least a few times over the past 12 months, one in five GPs (17.4%) could not locate a CMP to refer to in their local area, and over one-third of GPs (37.7%) stated they would not refer to a CMP under any circumstances. GPs that had graduated from an Australian medical college (OR = 3.71; CI: 1.22, 11.23), GPs observing positive responses previously in patients using CM (OR = 2.53; 95% CI: 1.12, 8.58), GPs perceiving a lack of other options for patients (OR = 3.10; 95% CI: 1.12, 8.58), GPs reporting satisfactory or higher levels of CM knowledge (OR = 15.62; 95% CI: 5.47, 44.56), and GPs interested in increasing their complementary and alternative medicine knowledge (OR = 3.28; 95% CI: 1.17, 9.21) referred to CMPs more frequently than did other groups of GPs amongst the rural GPs included in this study.
There has been little interaction between CMPs and Australian rural and regional GPs.
Response to Holmes Wardle, Jonathan L; Steel, Amie E; Adams, Jon
The journal of alternative and complementary medicine (New York, N.Y.)
19, Številka:
12
Journal Article
We identified emerging scientific, technological, and sociopolitical issues likely to affect how biological invasions are studied and managed over the next two decades. Issues were ranked according ...to their probability of emergence, pervasiveness, potential impact, and novelty. Top-ranked issues include the application of genomic modification tools to control invasions, effects of Arctic globalization on invasion risk in the Northern Hemisphere, commercial use of microbes to facilitate crop production, the emergence of invasive microbial pathogens, and the fate of intercontinental trade agreements. These diverse issues suggest an expanding interdisciplinary role for invasion science in biosecurity and ecosystem management, burgeoning applications of biotechnology in alien species detection and control, and new frontiers in the microbial ecology of invasions.
Expanding transportation networks, technological advances, global environmental change, and geopolitical forces are transforming risks of invasion worldwide.
Genomic modification tools offer novel risks and potential solutions to managing invasions.
Rapid warming and intensified human activities in the Arctic will alter invasion patterns and risks across the Northern Hemisphere.
Anthropogenic stressors promote rapid evolutionary shifts that cause native and alien populations to become invasive.
Microbial ecology is becoming increasingly relevant to understanding and managing invasions.
PDF
