Explaining illness: Examining traditional Chinese medicine versus Western biomedicine explications on acupuncture

A key component of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) with origins tracing back thousands of years, acupuncture involves the insertion of thin needles at specific points of the body. It is widely used to treat numerous health conditions, including arthritis, chronic pain, nausea, infertility, allergies, and menstrual problems. In the United States, acupuncture is growing in popularity, with an estimated 3.1 million adults and 150,000 children as patients. When first introduced to acupuncture treatment, individuals often face uncertainty as to what acupuncture is and how it works. As such, a communicative challenge for health practitioners is explaining acupuncture in relation to its effect on illness. Based on a 2 (type of acupuncture explanation – TCM versus Western) x 2 (doctor race – Chinese versus non-Hispanic White) factorial design, this study aimed to assess a number of factors concerning acupuncture: (a) perceptions of acupuncture explanations (TCM/Western; i.e., clear/unclear, informative/uninformative, etc.), (b) attitude towards acupuncture (i.e., beneficial/harmful, favorable/unfavorable, etc.), (c) likelihood to seek acupuncture treatment in the future, and (d) preference in explanation type (i.e., TCM or Western).

Results indicate significant differences between the TCM and Western biomedicine messages on a number of dependent measures concerning perceptions of the explanations and attitude towards acupuncture. The Western explanation was rated higher on these variables; it also ranked significantly higher in preference, compared to the TCM explanation. These findings suggest that using the Western explanation on the nature of acupuncture may serve patients and the general public more effectively than that of the traditional Chinese medicine version.