Clinical trial · Interventional
Patient-centered Self-administered Acupressure for Fatigue Management in Chinese Advanced Cancer Patients
Use of Patient-centered Self-administered Acupressure for Fatigue Management in Chinese Advanced Cancer Patients: A Randomized Wait-list Controlled Trial
- Source
- ClinicalTrials.gov
- Retrieved
- Sep 8, 2026
- Layer
- normalized (units and labels harmonized; values unchanged)
- Run
- ING-CLINICALTRIALS-20260908-000001
Summary
Brief summary (as posted)
OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the effect of a patient-centered self-administered acupressure intervention on fatigue, sleep quality, pain, fatigue-sleep disturbance-pain symptom cluster severity, psychological distress, and health-related quality of life among Chinese advanced cancer patients. HYPOTHESIS TO BE TESTED: Upon intervention completion, the intervention group will exhibit lower levels of fatigue, pain, fatigue-sleep disturbance-pain symptom cluster severity, and psychological distress and higher levels of sleep quality and health-related quality of life than the wait-list control group. DESIGN and SUBJECTS: A randomized wait-list controlled trial with intervention and wait-list control groups. A total of 30 Chinese advanced cancer patients who screen positive for moderate/severe fatigue with symptoms of insomnia and/or pain will be recruited. STUDY INSTRUMENTS: Chinese versions of the Brief Fatigue Inventory, Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index, Brief Pain Inventory, Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale, Functional Assessment of Cancer Therapy - General, and a demographic questionnaire. INTERVENTION: A 4-week patient-centered self-administered acupressure intervention comprising 17.5 hours of individual training and self-practice. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Primary: fatigue. Secondary: sleep quality, pain, fatigue-sleep disturbance-pain symptom cluster severity, psychological distress, health-related quality of life, actigraphy. DATA ANALYSIS: Linear mixed-effects models to assess between-group differences in outcome measures post-intervention and changes between data collection points, as well as whether the between-group differences vary across time. EXPECTED RESULTS: The proposed patient-centered self-administered acupressure intervention is useful for alleviating the fatigue and related symptoms experienced by Chinese advanced cancer patients.
Conditions
Conditions (2)
Free-text conditions as registered, with the CancerIndex entity they were reconciled to and the match type.
| Condition (as posted) | Mapped entity | Match | Confidence |
|---|---|---|---|
| Acupressure | — | UNRESOLVED | — |
| Advanced Cancer | Malignant Neoplasm | CURATED_BROADER | 0.78 |
Interventions
Interventions (1)
| Intervention | Type | Mapped drug | Match |
|---|---|---|---|
| Self-administered acupressure | Behavioral | — | UNRESOLVED |
Design
Arms and outcomes
Arms (2)
- type
- EXPERIMENTAL
- label
- Self-administered acupressure
- description
- The proposed self-administered acupressure intervention is patient-centered comprising four pre-selected acupoints that should be applied pressure on by all patients and a list of additional acupoints from which patients can choose two for self-administration according to the personalized recommendations of trainers. In this way, each patient will receive an individualized protocol (four pre-selected and two self-selected acupoints). The intervention consists of: individual participant training (Two 2-hour one-on-one training sessions in week 1), self-practice (15 minutes of self-administered acupressure twice a day), and follow-up visits (a 1-hour follow-up visit at weeks 2, 3, and 4).
- interventionNames
- Behavioral: Self-administered acupressure
- type
- NO_INTERVENTION
- label
- Wait-list control
- description
- The wait-list control group will be contacted in the third week to attend a health talk unrelated to symptom management.
Primary outcomes (2)
Eligibility
Eligibility (as posted)
- Sex
- All
- Minimum age
- 18 Years
- Maximum age
- 99 Years
Show eligibility criteria text
Inclusion Criteria: 1. Chinese ethnicity, 18 years of age or older, and ability to communicate in Cantonese or Putonghua; 2. Advanced-stage cancer diagnosis (i.e., colorectum- stage IV; lung - stage IIIB or IV non-small cell or extensive small cell; breast - stage IV; prostate- stage IV; liver - stage IV); 3. An Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group performance status (ECOG PS) of 0 or 1; and 4. Experience of fatigue (rated ≥ 4 on the "fatigue worst" item of the BFI) AND sleep disturbance or pain, or both, in the past week (severity rated ≥ 3 on a 0-10 numeric rating scale) Exclusion Criteria: 1. are receiving in-patient hospice care; or 2. are taking any medications for insomnia or depression; or 3. have psychiatric or serious medical disorders that may prevent them from comprehending or performing the intervention; or 4. received acupressure or acupuncture in the previous 3 months; or 5. are pregnant or lactating; or 6. have any injury or ulcers around the acupoints
References
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