Research Article The Stimulation Effect of Auricular Magnetic Press Pellets on Older Female Adults with Sleep Disturbance Undergoing Polysomnographic Evaluation

Copyright © 2013 Chyi Lo et al. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. Study Objectives. To examine the stimulation effect of auricular magnetic press pellet therapy on older female adults with sleep disturbance as determined by polysomnography (PSG).Design. Randomized, single-blind, experimental-controlled, parallel-group. Setting. Community. Participants. Twenty-seven older female adults with sleep disturbance according to the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI)>5 for at least 3 months were recruited. Participants were screened by both the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS) and the Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE), as well as polysomnography prior to randomization. Interventions. All eligible participants were randomly allocated into the experimental or control group. Both groups were tapedwith magnetic press pellet on auricular points for 3 weeks. The experimental group was treated by applying pressure on the magnetic press pellets 3 times per day while no stimulation was applied on the control group.Measurements and Results. Both groups wer