A study of the relative precision of acupoint location methods.

Objective: This study examined the relative precision of four methods of acupoint location: two traditional methods (directional and proportional) and two contemporary methods (elastic and ruler).

Design: Seventy-two (72) subjects attempted to locate a fictitious acupoint (FP) with repeated attempts and the resulting coordinates were recorded.

Location: The research was carried out at the Acupuncture Clinic of the University of Technology, Sydney (UTS).

Subjects: The 72 subjects were selected from undergraduates of the Bachelor of Health Science in Acupuncture course.

Results: Analysis of the results found no significant difference in precision between the two traditional methods, nor between the two contemporary methods. However, the contemporary methods were both shown to be significantly more precise than the traditional methods (F(3,120) = 11.74, p < 0.0001).

Conclusions: Based on the scatter size resulting from the use of each method, the surface area of the acupoint would need to range from almost 13 cm(2) for the directional method to less than 3 cm(2) for the ruler method if 95% of the subjects were to locate the acupoint successfully. Implications and recommendations for research and education are discussed.