Korean J Rehabil Nurs.  2015 Dec;18(2):88-97. 10.7587/kjrehn.2015.88.

Effect of Auricular Acupressure Therapy on Decreasing Smoking rates, Desire for Smoking, and Exhaled Carbon Monoxide in Male College Students

• Kwon OY
• Song JH
• Park KS

• KMID: 2153030
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.7587/kjrehn.2015.88

Abstract

PURPOSE
This study was conducted to investigate the effect of auricular acupressure therapy on decreasing smoking rates, desire for smoking, and exhaled carbon monoxide in male college students.
METHODS
The quasi-experimental, nonequivalent control group pretest-posttest design was used in this study. The participants (n=56) were assigned to the experimental group (n=29) that received auricular acupressure therapy or the control group (n=27) that received placebo therapy. The therapy was applied for 5 days followed by 1 or 2 days of rest. The therapy was repeated 2 times. To identify the effect of the experimental treatments, assessments of smoking rates, desire for smoking and exhaled carbon monoxide were measured. Data were analyzed using chi2 test, Fisher's exact test, t-test and Repeated measure ANOVA with the SPSS version 21.0 program.
RESULTS
The experimental group showed significantly lower smoking rates (t=6.60, p<.001), desire for smoking (t=3.37, p=.002) and exhaled carbon monoxide levels (t=6.22, p<.001) after application of the therapy. Significant groupxtime interaction effect was found in exhaled carbon monoxide levels between the experimental group and the control group (F=8.73, p=.001).
CONCLUSION
Auricular acupressure therapy was considered to likely be useful as a therapeutic intervention for smoking cessation in male young adults.

Keyword

Smoking cessation; Acupressure; Carbon monoxide

MeSH Terms

Acupressure*
Carbon Monoxide*
Carbon*
Humans
Male*
Smoke*
Smoking Cessation
Smoking*
Young Adult
Carbon
Carbon Monoxide
Smoke