Attitude and willingness of attendance for participating in or completing acupuncture trials: a cross-sectional study

Figures & data

Table 1 Demographic information of 500 participants

Characteristics	Participation experience (n)	Non-participation experience (n)	Total (n, %)	P-valuea
Age (years)				0.65
Mean (SD)	44.93 (16.40)	45.93 (15.35)	–
Nationality				0.93
Han	39	446	485 (97.0)
Hui	1	7	8 (1.6)
Manchu	0	5	5 (1.0)
Mongolian	0	1	1 (0.2)
Yao	0	1	1 (0.2)
Gender				0.46
Female	32	344	376 (75.2)
Male	8	116	124 (24.8)
Education				0.74
Junior high education	4	68	72 (14.4)
High school education	8	113	121 (24.2)
Junior college degree	8	66	74 (14.8)
Undergraduate	14	160	174 (34.8)
Postgraduate	6	53	59 (11.8)
Income (yuan)				0.42
≤2,000	7	44	51 (10.2)
2,000–4,000	16	182	198 (39.6)
4,000–5,000	4	61	65 (13.0)
≥5,000	13	173	186 (37.2)
Medical insurance				0.33
Medical insurance	30	386	416 (83.2)
Public medical treatment	3	19	22 (4.4)
Self-expense	7	55	62 (12.4)

Note:

a P-values compare the proportion of patients who had participated in clinical trials with patients who had no participation experience.

Table 2 Opinion of 321 patients on the benefit/harm from participating in clinical trials

Potential benefits/harm	Number of the patients (%, n=321)
Better effect of treatment	108 (33.6)
Free treatment	99 (30.8)
Uncertain about good effect	91 (28.3)
Comprehensive and meticulous diagnosis and treatment	16 (5.0)
No effect, maybe has side effect	7 (2.3)

Table 3 Factors influencing patients’ participation in clinical trials

Factors	Not important (n, %)	Indifferent (n, %)	Slightly important (n, %)	Very important (n, %)
Cost of the treatment	94 (18.8)	190 (38.0)	155 (31.0)	61 (12.2)
Treatment regimen	32 (6.4)	137 (27.4)	205 (41.0)	126 (25.2)
Fully informed consent	17 (3.4)	37 (7.4)	225 (45.0)	221 (44.2)
Effect of treatment	5 (1.0)	37 (7.4)	195 (39.0)	263 (52.6)
Safety during the clinical trials	1 (0.2)	17 (3.4)	120 (24.0)	362 (72.4)
Follow-up in time	8 (1.6)	126 (25.2)	199 (39.8)	167 (33.4)

Table 4 The LRA between factors influencing patients’ involvement and participation experience

Variable	Ba	OR	(95% CI)	P-value
Cost of the treatment	−0.19	0.83	(0.56, 1.23)	0.34
Treatment regimen	0.43	1.54	(1.02, 2.34)	0.04
Fully informed consent	−0.29	0.75	(0.37, 1.50)	0.41
Effectiveness	0.13	1.14	(0.64, 2.04)	0.65
Safety	−0.05	0.95	(0.44, 2.04)	0.89
Follow-up in time	−0.03	0.97	(0.59, 1.57)	0.89
Constant	3.03	20.69	–	0.04

Note:

a Represents regression coefficient.

Abbreviation: LRA, logistic regression analysis.

Figure S1 A survey about patients’ willingness and compliance of participating in or completing acupuncture clinical trial (translation edition).