The Effect of Auricular Reflexology Therapy in Musculoskeletal Disease

근골격계(筋骨格系) 질환(疾患)에 있어서 이혈요법(耳穴療法)의 효과(效果)

This study is made for the survey of the effectiveness of the auricular reflexology, now accepted as a part of alternative medicine, applied to the patients of musculoskeltal disease patients, and data about its cognition and the success rate of the therapy. 106 patient was employed in this study who works in various part in a company in Jun-ju in Junrabukdo. From them, data such as, musculoskeletal symptoms by questionnaire examination, and data from ear inspections and interviews were collected and used for the basal data. Auricular reflexology therapies were applied to them at the areas that reflect the musculoskeletal system, for five times, each time with intervals of three or four days. The data about the effectiveness were collected by questionnaire examination, including descriptive answers. The results are as follows; cognition to the auricular reflexology was 62.3%, and acceptance rate of this method was 81.1%. From this results, I think that this therapy can be easily acceptable. The success rates of this therapy were 32.1% after 1 time application, and 84.9% after 5 times applications. This result shows that auricular reflexology therapy has therapeutic effect in musculoskeletal diseases, and the success rates increase according to the application times. Between sex, its success rate were 80% in male patients, and 88.5% in female patients, so this therapy is rather more effective in female patients. According to the body weight, the success rate were 85.8% in normal weight patients, and 71.5% in over- weight patients, so this therapy is more effective in normal weight patients. Comparisons according to other factors, such as age, marriage state etc. shows no definite differences. Conclusively, I think that auricular reflex therapy is easy and useful preventative and treatment method in our usual life. With more investigation, we can apply this method to other musculoskeletal diseases and to the diseases of other systems in the body, I hope so.