Long-term effects of combined laser acupuncture on depressive symptoms, disease activity and C-reactive protein in rheumatoid arthritis patients

Table 1 Demographic and clinical characteristics of study participants by group (n = 67), mean ± SD

Variables	All participants (n = 67)		Laser acupuncture (n = 32)		Non-laser acupuncture (n = 35)		P value
	n	%	n	%	n	%
Demographic data
Sex							0.45
Male	13	19.4	5	15.6	8	22.9
Female	54	80.6	27	84.4	27	77.1
Job							0.07
Employed	24	35.8	8	25.0	16	45.7
Unemployed	43	64.2	24	75.0	19	54.3
Educational level							0.46
< 9th grade	24	35.8	10	31.3	14	40.0
≥ 9th grade	43	64.2	22	68.8	21	60.0
Household status							0.59
Alone	10	14.9	4	12.5	6	17.1
Cohabiting	57	85.1	28	87.5	29	82.9
Regular exercising							0.43
No	26	38.8	14	43.8	12	34.3
Yes	41	61.2	18	56.2	23	65.7
Smoking habit							0.84
No	51	76.1	24	75.0	27	77.1
Yes	16	23.9	8	25.0	8	22.9
Age (years)	59.0 ± 12.1		56.7 ± 11.7		61.1 ± 12.0
Clinical characteristics
Use of biological agents							0.13
No	21	31.3	10	31.3	11	31.4
Yes	46	68.7	22	68.7	24	68.6
Metabolic disorders							0.91
No	33	49.3	16	50.0	17	48.6
Yes	34	50.7	16	50.0	18	51.4
Disease duration	9.2 ± 6.3		9.5 ± 7.7		8.6 ± 5.4		0.65
DAS28	3.6 ± 1.5		4.1 ± 1.6		3.1 ± 1.3		0.07
CRP	1.1 ± 1.6		1.9 ± 2.3		0.3 ± 0.4		0.01
TDQ	16.1 ± 7.9		16.6 ± 8.2		15.7 ± 7.9		0.66
Fatigue	4.1 ± 2.5		5.0 ± 2.5		3.2 ± 2.8		0.01
BMI	23.7 ± 3.4		24.0 ± 0.6		23.5 ± 3.5		0.56

CRP: C-reactive protein; DAS28: Disease Activity Score in 28 joints; TDQ: Taiwanese Depression Questionnaire; BMI: Body mass index.

Table 2 Generalized estimating equations model of the effects of laser acupuncture treatment in individuals with rheumatoid arthritis (n = 67)

Variables	TDQ		DAS28		CRP
	Regression coefficient	P value	Regression coefficient	P value	Regression coefficient	P value
Intercept	15.67	< 0.001	3.142	< 0.001	0.37	< 0.001
Group 1 vs group 0	0.88	0.65	0.66	0.06	0.69	0.04
T1 vs T0	-0.91	0.08	-0.33	0.08	0.10	0.24
T2 vs T0	-4.21	0.03	-0.52	0.04	0.23	0.13
Interaction of T1 and group	-1.24	0.83	-0.73	0.006	-0.53	0.06
Interaction of T2 and group	-9.34	< 0.001	-1.05	0.001	-0.74	0.03

T0: Before laser acupuncture treatment (LAT) initiation; T1: 7 days after LAT initiation; T2: 3 months after LAT completion. The T1 × group interaction represents the difference between the treated and untreated groups from T0 to T1. The T2 × group interaction represents the difference between the treated and untreated groups from T0 to T2. CRP: C-reactive protein; DAS28: Disease Activity Score in 28 joints; TDQ: Taiwanese Depression Questionnaire.