The Association between Acupuncture Therapy and the Risk of Disability Development in Dementia Patients: A Nationwide Cohort Study

Abstract

Purpose

Disability is the comorbidity of dementia for which there is no available preventive measure. The aim of this study was to investigate the association between acupuncture treatment and the risk of disability development in dementia patients.

Patients and Methods

A cohort study was performed using a nationwide health database in Taiwan. The included dementia patients were divided into acupuncture and non-acupuncture cohorts based on whether they received acupuncture treatment during the follow-up period. The variables in the two cohorts were controlled by 1:1 propensity-score matching. The difference in disability development in dementia patients between the acupuncture and non-acupuncture cohorts was also analyzed. Subgroup analyses were performed using socioeconomic variables, comorbidities and anti-dementia agents (donepezil, rivastigmine, galantamine and memantine) used for dementia treatment.

Results

A total of 9,760 dementia patients met our inclusion criteria, and patients were divided into an equal number (n=2,422) of acupuncture and non-acupuncture groups, respectively, after 1:1 propensity-score matching. The dementia patients had a lower risk of disability development after acupuncture treatment than those who did not receive acupuncture treatment (adjusted hazard ratio 0.65, 95% confidence interval 0.60–0.70, p < 0.001). The results were independent of basic variables or comorbidities in the two cohorts. Patients who did not use anti-dementia agents had a lower risk of developing disability after receiving acupuncture intervention than those who used anti-dementia agents.

Conclusion

Our results revealed the relationship between acupuncture intervention and decreased risk of developing disability in dementia patients. The results are useful for dementia treatment, trial design and further planning of care programs.

Keywords:

• acupuncture
• disability
• dementia
• traditional Chinese medicine

Acknowledgments

This research was supported by the China Medical University Hospital (DMR-111-192 and DMR-112-175) and Taiwan Ministry of Health and Welfare Clinical Trial Center (MOHW112-TDU-B-212-144004). We are grateful to Health Data Science Center, China Medical University Hospital, Taiwan for providing administrative, technical and funding support. The funders had no role in the study design, data collection and analysis, the decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.

Disclosure

The authors report no conflicts of interest in this work.