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Review
. 2022 May 30:15:1651-1666.
doi: 10.2147/DMSO.S356853. eCollection 2022.

Acupuncture Therapies for Individuals with Overweight or Obesity: An Overview of Systematic Reviews

Jiaxin Chen  1   2 , Johannah L Shergis  3 , Xinfeng Guo  1   2 , Anthony Lin Zhang  3 , Hanlin Wang  1   2 , Chuanjian Lu  1   2 , Charlie C Xue  3 , Changcai Xie  1   2
Affiliations
Review

Acupuncture Therapies for Individuals with Overweight or Obesity: An Overview of Systematic Reviews

Jiaxin Chen et al. Diabetes Metab Syndr Obes. .

Abstract

Purpose: An increasing number of people are affected by overweight or obesity, and the personal and social health burden is growing rapidly. Acupuncture is gaining popularity as an alternative treatment to manage weight. This research aims to update and synthesize the evidence of acupuncture therapies from systematic reviews for treating overweight and obesity.

Methods: Nine databases were searched from their inception to March 2022. Overweight or obesity was classified using standard diagnostic criteria. Published systematic reviews that included randomized controlled trials and quasi-randomized studies were eligible. Quality was assessed via the AMSTAR-2 scale and risk of bias using the ROBIS tool.

Results: Thirty-eight systematic reviews were identified. Acupuncture therapies and auricular acupoint stimulation showed benefits in terms of reducing body weight and body mass index. Catgut embedding therapy and abdominal acupuncture are currently not in widespread use with insufficient evidence. Acupuncture therapies appear to be safe. Most of the reviews were assessed as having high risk of bias and low confidence in the findings.

Conclusion: There is a need for larger and more methodologically sound randomized controlled trials to evaluate the effectiveness of acupuncture therapies for individuals who are affected by overweight or obesity.

Keywords: acupuncture; obesity; overweight; systematic review.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that there is no conflict of interest regarding the publication of this article.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Flow diagram of study selection.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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