| Background Chinese Herbal Medicine (CHM) and acupuncture have been increasingly used to control body weight. Both empirical evidence and numerous clinical studies have shown beneficial effects of Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) in the treatment of obesity. HACMD commissioned a SR study on obesity in 2010, it examined the efficacy, safety, rationale and incidence of relapse of weight gain using TCM to treat obesity, and their possible therapeutic values. CHM and acupuncture were more effective than placebo or lifestyle modification in reducing body weight. They had similar efficacy as the Western anti-obesity drugs but with few reported adverse effects. However, these conclusion were limited by small sample size and low quality of methodologies (Sui et al., 2012). Given the public health burden of obesity, use of TCM is a possible therapeutic option to address this unmet need. Despite their extensive use in current clinical practice, the evidence base for their use has not yet been subject to rigorous appraisal using international standards. Therefore, an approach to use the existing findings as the basis and develop a pilot Randomized Controlled Trial (RCT) examining the effectiveness, efficacy and safety of acupuncture on weight control in local setting is needed. Objective The objective of the project is to develop a pilot RCT to i) examine the effectiveness, efficacy and safety of acupuncture on weight control in local setting; and ii) provide the chance for CMP in CMCTRs to familiar with the process of establishing EBCM research project. Results & Conclusion This study demonstrated that body acupuncture and auricular acupuncture could reduce body weight (p = 0.015) and BMI (p = 0.016). However, there was no significant effects on waist circumference, body fat percentage and hip circumference during treatment. The current study demonstrated evidence for acupuncture on body weight control. |