Investigating Self-Acupressure for Fatigued Ovarian Cancer Survivors
Abstract
Background: Long-term fatigue is a common and burdensome problem for many women with ovarian cancer, even many years after the end of cancer treatments. Women who have fatigue tend to have higher levels of chronic pain, poorer sleep, lower quality of life, and a tendency to not to join as frequently in self-care activities such as physical activity. Despite the challenges experienced by women with persistent fatigue, there are very few attempts to identify self-care-focused treatments. One possible self-care technique for fatigue is self-administered acupressure. Acupressure comes from traditional Chinese medicine and is a technique where physical pressure is applied by the finger, thumb, or with devices to acupoints found throughout the body to treat illness or its symptoms. We have conducted a large study in fatigued breast cancer survivors and found that two types of self-acupressure--relaxing and stimulating--were both able to decrease fatigue by 60% on average compared to usual care for fatigue and that the relaxing acupressure technique was also able to improve sleep and quality of life compared to usual care. We also performed a small study comparing relaxing and stimulating self-acupressure in fatigued adult cancer survivors of whom 14% had been diagnosed with ovarian cancer and also found significant reductions in fatigue of 45% to 70%. Since self-acupressure can be easily learned, a mobile application (app) such as those found on smart phones and computer tablets could help more cancer survivors learn and use this self-help treatment. When we surveyed cancer patients with fatigue, many indicated that they would prefer to use technology such as a mobile app to learn how to perform acupressure, so we developed "MeTime Acupressure," a mobile app based on input from focus groups consisting of cancer survivors. Focus group members also asked for a device to go with the app in order to learn and apply an accurate amount of pressure to acupoints. To make the device, we partnered with Arbor Medical Innovations, a Michigan-based technology company, to use their expertise in making hand-held devices that provide the precise amount of pressure; the device we created is called the "AcuWand." In this study we plan to test whether the MeTime Acupressure app, used along with the AcuWand daily for 6 weeks, can decrease long-term fatigue and improve sleep and quality of life in chronically tired ovarian cancer survivors when compared to a sham or a "false" set of acupressure points, also delivered using the MeTime Acupressure app and the AcuWand, or to no treatment. We hypothesize that fatigued ovarian cancer survivors will experience improvements in fatigue, sleep, and quality of life as well as other common symptoms often found along with fatigue such as pain, depression, sexual issues, poor memory, or problems concentrating from using relaxing as compared to sham acupressure or no treatment. We also hypothesize that improvements in fatigue, sleep, and quality of life and other common symptoms will continue even after women are no longer doing self-administered acupressure. To test these questions, we plan to randomize ovarian cancer survivors with long-term fatigue to three groups: 1. 6 weeks of daily relaxing self-acupressure (n=55); 2. 6 weeks of daily sham self-acupressure (n=55); or 3. no treatment (n=55) followed by 18 weeks of no acupressure and explore if the change from the start of the study to the end of the acupressure treatments in fatigue, sleep, quality of life, and other common symptoms improves more in the relaxing acupressure group compared to either the sham acupressure or no treatment groups. Both acupressure groups will be delivered using the MeTime Acupressure app along with the AcuWand. Along with giving women questionnaires about their fatigue, sleep, quality of life, and other common symptoms at the beginning of the study and at the end of acupressure treatment (week 6), we will also ask women t
Document Details
- Document Type
- DoD Grant Award
- Publication Date
- Oct 29, 2018
- Source ID
- W81XWH1810180
Entities
People
- Suzanna Zick
Organizations
- United States Army
- University of Michigan