Effect of Medical Tattoo for Pain Reduction among Lower Back Pain Patients

Abstract

The objective of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of medical tattoo on pain reducing among lower back pain patients in Chaiya district, Surat Thani province. A quasi-experimental study design was assigned between April and July 2020. The sample size was calculated by G* power and acquired 32 participants. Purposive sampling was made to access to each participant at a private Thai traditional medicine clinic in Surat Thani province. Descriptive statistics were used to analyze the data. Pain level before and after received of medical tattoo practice were compared by Wilcoxon Signed Rank Test. The results found that most participants were female (65.6%). Their average age was 42.90 year, minimum 23.67 years and maximum 80.33 years. Their marital status was married (68.8%). They were agriculturist (40.6%). Their working position was sitting (50%) and felt having pain during the day (78.1%). They did nothing to reduce their pain before receiving medical tattoo practice (84.4%).  Injurious food which they ate was poultry (96.9%). Their characteristics of pain was the most aching pain (50.0%). Their median level of their pain was significantly reduced from 3 to 1 (p-value < 0.001). Medical tattoo practice should be considered as an alternative treatment of low back pain. Further study should be study the extended time of medical tattoo practice on pain removal before its recurrent and compare the effective between this treatment and other Thai traditional medicine procedures.