• Journal of East-West Nursing Research
• /
• v.15 no.1
• /
• pp.1-8
• /
• 2009

Purpose: This study was conducted to investigate the effects of auriculotherapy on sleep disorders in the elderly. Methods: The study was a quasi-experimental design with a non-equivalent control group pre-post post-test. The participants were 43 elderly, members of community senior centers, experimental group were 23 elderly, and control group were 20 elderly. For the experimental group, small seeds (semen vaccaria) were applied to five locations of both auricular skin surfaces: shen men, heart, anterior lobe, occiput, and spleen of posterior surface. The seeds were applied every week, and remained in surfaces for 5 days. The procedure were repeated 4 times. The control group was not treated. The collected data were statistically processed using SPSS 12.0 version and the data was analyzed for descriptive statistics and t-test. Results: The experimental group had a greater improvement in sleep scale score (t=-4.717, p<.001) and sleep satisfaction score (t=-6.095, p<.001) as compared to the control group. Conclusions: Auriculotherapy by small seeds (semen vaccaria) is effective in allaying sleep disorders in the elderly. The results may be useful to community health nurses.