Protective role of summer acupoint application therapy on weather-triggered rheumatoid arthritis flares
In brief
Temperature swings raised arthritis admissions 10%, but not among therapy recipients
In 9,261 hospitalizations in Hefei, China, each interquartile-range increase in daily temperature variation was linked to a 10.2% rise in rheumatoid arthritis admissions over the following week. Among patients who received summer acupoint therapy, researchers found no significant temperature-related increase after matching; this observational study cannot show the therapy caused the difference, so trials are needed.
- Journal
- One health (Amsterdam, Netherlands) (Q1)
- Published
- 14 September 2026
- Study design
- Randomized controlled trial
- Evidence level
- Level 1, High (CEBM 1b)
- Authors
- Ling Xin, Jian Liu, Wei Song, Yang Li, Yongjian Zhu
- PMID
- 42774486
- DOI
- 10.1016/j.onehlt.2026.101574
Why clinicians should know about it
- Picked for Rheumatology (top studies of the week, 27 September 2026): Summer acupoint therapy reduces weather‑triggered RA flares
Abstract
Summer acupoint application (SAA) therapy is widely practiced in China for rheumatoid arthritis (RA) prevention, but its effectiveness in mitigating weather-related RA risk remains unclear. This study evaluated the short-term association between diurnal temperature range (DTR) and RA hospitalization, and quantified SAA's protective effect using daily hospital data from Hefei, China (2013-2024; n = 9261, including 1066 SAA recipients). A time-stratified case-crossover design combined with 1:1 propensity score matching (PSM) was employed. Per interquartile range increase in DTR, cumulative RA hospitalization risk rose by 10.2% (95% CI: 2.7%-18.2%) at lag 0-7 days. After PSM, the control group exhibited elevated risk (OR = 1.138, 95% CI: 1.013-1.279), whereas the SAA group showed no significant DTR-related risk (OR = 0.889, 95% CI: 0.734-1.075), with a significant between-group difference (P = 0.030). Attributable fractions were 12.13% and - 12.54% for control and SAA groups, respectively. The protective effect of SAA therapy was stronger among females, patients aged ≥45 years, and those with more comorbidities, and was most pronounced in autumn. These findings indicate that SAA therapy may mitigate DTR-related RA hospitalization risk, highlighting a potential preventive strategy for vulnerable populations. What is innovative in this paper is that the linking of meteorological stressors with a traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) intervention was first explored, and the results of the study also showed that TCM intervention was indeed associated with a reduced risk of DTR-related RA hospitalizations. However, the observational nature of this study precludes causal inference, and future randomized controlled trials should be employed to validate these findings further.
Abstract as published, via PubMed.
For healthcare professionals. The summary is generated by AI from the published abstract, and the evidence level is assigned automatically from the study design on the Oxford CEBM hierarchy. Neither is medical advice. Read the full paper before changing practice.