The most frequently reported disease of the older age group in Turkey is degenerative articular disease and pain associated with the disease. Analgesics and physical therapy are preferred treatment for geriatric chronic pain but suffering from multiple medical and nutritional problems in old ages can limit treatment options with analgesics due to an increased risk of adverse effects and drug interactions. This study aimed to show the effect of acupuncture on back-pain and knee-pain treatment of elderly people. The study includes 34 patients, 24 female and 8 male. The mean age was 69.0417 ± 8.95 years for females and 73.12 ± 8.95.24 years for males. Every two days for a total of 10 sessions acupuncture treatment to Yintang, Ht 7 (Shenmen), LI 4 (Hegu), Ki 3 (Taixi) and Ki 6 were shown to significantly reduce pain scores of patients. Mean back pain scores (8.8696 ± 1.546) and mean knee pain scores (9.1304 ± 1.4239) of patients were decreased significantly to 2.1739 ± 1.466 and 1.455 ± 0.7; p< 0.001 respectively after the acupuncture treatment.
These are significant results as they provide rationale to use acupuncture treatment widely in chronic low back pain and knee pain in the geriatric group of patients to decrease the side effects of polypharmacy in elderly.