Work related illness (WRI) is physical or mental illness caused by or aggravated by work. WRI affects individuals, their families, employers, the health system, the economy and the community. The two largest categories of WRI are musculoskeletal disorders (MSD) and stress, anxiety and depression (SAD). Health and Safety Executive (HSE) statistics indicate over a million workers are injured or made ill by their workplace in the United Kingdom each year. In 2016/17 the total cost of workplace self-reported injuries and ill health was £15 billion with ill health being the biggest proportion of total costs at 65% (£9.7 billion) and work place injury resulting in around 35% (£5.2 billion). The Complementary and Alternative Medicine (CAM) treatment modality of Auricular Acupuncture (AA) has been used for over 2500 years, to treat illness and provides a cost effective treatment modality for WRI including MSD and SAD.

Keywords: Auricular Acupuncture (AA); Musculoskeletal Disorders (MSD); Stress, Anxiety and Depression (SAD); Work Related Illness (WRI); Complementary and Alternative Medicine (CAM)

References

1. Batawi MA. “Work-related diseases. A new program of the World Health Organization”. Scandinavian Journal of Work, Environment and Health 10.6 (1984): 341-346.
2. Executive HaS. “Costs to Great Britain of workplace injuries and new cases of work-related Ill Health” (2016).
3. Helen Russell., et al. “Work-related Musculoskeletal Disorders and Stress, Anxiety and Depression in Ireland: Evidence from the QNHS 2002–2013”. Sir John Rogerson’s Quay, Dublin 2: The Economic and Social Research Institute Whitaker Square (2016).
4. Helen Russell., et al. “Work-related Musculoskeletal Disorders and Stress, Anxiety and Depression in Ireland: Evidence from the QNHS 2002–2013”. The Economic and Social Research Institute (2016).
5. Helen Russell., et al. “Work-related Musculoskeletal Disorders, and Stress, Anxiety and Depressionin Ireland: Evidence from the QNHS 2002–2013”. Whitaker Square, Sir John Rogerson’s Quay, Dublin 2: Economic and Social Research Institute ESRI (2014).
6. UK HaSE. “Health and safety at work Summary statistics for Great Britain 2018”. UK: Published by the Health and Safety Executive (2018).
7. UK HaSE. “Work-related ill health and occupational disease in Great Britain” (2019). 
8. Executive HaS. Working days lost in Great Britain (2019).
9. Marmot M and Brunner E. “Cohort Profile: The Whitehall II study”. International Journal of Epidemiology 34.2 (2005): 251-256.
10. Juliet Hassard KT., et al. “Calculating the cost of work-related stress and psychosocial risks European Risk Observatory Literature Review”. European Agency for Safety and Health at Work (2014).
11. Fox P., et al. “Complementary alternative medicine (CAM) use in Ireland: a secondary analysis of SLAN data”. Complementary Therapies in Medicine 18.2 (2010): 95-103.
12. O’Sullivan T. “Report on the Regulation of Practitioners of Complementary and Alternative Medicine in Ireland”. Health Services Development Unit (2002).
13. Hawk C., et al. “The Role of CAM in Public Health, Disease Prevention, and Health Promotion”. Evidence-Based Complementary and Alternative Medicine eCAM (2015): 528487.
14. E. The contribution of Complementary and Alternative Medicine to sustainable healthcare in Europe Belgium (2020). 
15. WHO. WHO traditional medicine strategy: 2014-2023 (2014).
16. (ENWHP) ENfWHP. Luxembourg Declaration on Workplace Health Promotion in the European Union (2007).
17. Ali A and Katz DL. “Disease Prevention and Health Promotion: How Integrative Medicine Fits”. American Journal of Preventive Medicine 49.5-3 (2015): S230-S40.
18. Hill FJ. “Complementary and alternative medicine: the next generation of health promotion?” Health Promotion International 18.3 (2003): 265-272.
19. Government I. “Report of the National Working Group on the Regulation of Complementary Therapists to the Minister for Health and Children”. Department of Health (2005).
20. Litscher G and Rong P-J. “Auricular Acupuncture”. Evidence-Based Complementary and Alternative Medicine: ECAM (2016): 4231260.
21. Garner BK., et al. “Auricular Acupuncture for Chronic Pain and Insomnia: A Randomized Clinical Trial”. Medical Acupuncture 30.5 (2018): 262-272.
22. Chao MT., et al. “Utilization of group-based, community acupuncture clinics: a comparative study with a nationally representative sample of acupuncture users”. Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine 18.6 (2012): 561-566.
23. Upchurch DM and Rainisch BW. “A sociobehavioral wellness model of acupuncture use in the United States, 2007”. Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine 20.1 (2014): 32-39.
24. Wesson BM. “Complementary and Integrative Health Services in a Low-resource Community: a Retrospective Examination”. Wisconsin-Milwaukee: University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee (2017).
25. White A., et al. “Group acupuncture for knee pain: evaluation of a cost-saving initiative in the health service”. Acupuncture in Medicine: Journal of the British Medical Acupuncture Society 30.3 (2012): 170-175.
26. Mardian A. “17 - Medical Acupuncture”. In: Lennard TA, Walkowski S, Singla AK, Vivian DG, editors. Pain Procedures in Clinical Practice (Third Edition). Saint Louis: Hanley and Belfus (2011): 139-154.
27. Whitelaw S., et al. “‘Settings’ based health promotion: a review”. Health Promotion International 16.4 (2001): 339-353.
28. Han JS. “Acupuncture and endorphins”. Neuroscience Letters 361.1-3 (2004): 258-261.
29. Wen G., et al. “Effect of Acupuncture on Neurotransmitters/Modulators”. In Acupuncture Therapy for Neurological Diseases. Berlin, Heidelberg: Springer Berlin Heidelberg (2010): 120-142.
30. Wen G., et al. “Effect of Acupuncture on Neurotransmitters/Modulators”. Xia Y. CX, Wu G., Cheng J., editor. Berlin, Heidelberg: Springer (2010).
31. Chen Y., et al. “The effect of acupuncture on the expression of inflammatory factors TNF-alpha, IL-6,IL-1 and CRP in cerebral infarction: A protocol of systematic review and meta-analysis”. Medicine (Baltimore) 98.24 (2019): e15408.
32. Silva-Filho JL., et al. “IL-4: an important cytokine in determining the fate of T cells”. Biophys Rev. 6.1 (2014):111-118.
33. Prado JMd., et al. “Efficacy of auriculotherapy for the reduction of stress in nursing students: a randomized clinical trial”. Rev Lat Am Enfermagem 20.4 (2012): 727-735.
34. Buchanan TM., et al. “Reducing Anxiety and Improving Engagement in Health Care Providers Through an Auricular Acupuncture Intervention”. Dimensions of Critical Care Nursing: DCCN 37.2 (2018): 87-96.
35. Reilly PM., et al. “Auricular acupuncture to relieve health care workers' stress and anxiety: impact on caring”. Dimensions of Critical Care Nursing: DCCN 33.3 (2014): 151-159.
36. Kurebayashi LFS., et al. “Auriculotherapy to reduce anxiety and pain in nursing professionals: a randomized clinical trial”. Revista Latino-Americana De Enfermagem 25 (2017): e2843.
37. Asher GN., et al. “Auriculotherapy for pain management: a systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials”. Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine 16.10 (2010):1097-1108.
38. Yeh CH., et al. “Efficacy of auricular therapy for pain management: a systematic review and meta-analysis”. Evidence-Based Complementary and Alternative Medicine: ecam (2014): 934670.
39. Yang L-H., et al. “Efficacy of Auricular Acupressure for Chronic Low Back Pain: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Randomized Controlled Trials”. Evidence-Based Complementary and Alternative Medicine: ECAM (2017): 6383649.
40. Moura CC., et al. “Auricular acupuncture for chronic back pain in adults: a systematic review and metanalysis”. Revista Da Escola De Enfermagem Da U S P 53 (2019): e03461.
41. Ferreira LA., et al. “Ear Acupuncture Therapy for Masticatory Myofascial and Temporomandibular Pain: A Controlled Clinical Trial”. Evidence-Based Complementary and Alternative Medicine: ECAM (2015): 342507.
42. Berman AH., et al. “Treating drug using prison inmates with auricular acupuncture: a randomized controlled trial”. Journal of Substance Abuse Treatment 26.2 (2004): 95-102.
43. Mehl-Madrona L and Mainguy B. “Introducing healing circles and talking circles into primary care”. The Permanente Journal 18.2 (2014): 4-9.
44. Aust B and Ducki A. “Comprehensive health promotion interventions at the workplace: experiences with health circles in Germany”. Journal of Occupational Health Psychology 9.3 (2004): 258-270.
45. Essays U. Measuring and Managing Absenteeism in the Workplace (2018).

Citation

Citation: Carina Harkin. “Auricular Acupuncture (AA) for Work Related Illness (WRI); Musculoskeletal Disorders (MSD) and Stress, Anxiety and Depression (SAD)". Acta Scientific Medical Sciences 4.1 (2020): 153-158.

Copyright

Copyright: © 2020 Carina Harkin. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.