Close look at the experiences of patients enrolled in a clinical trial of acupuncture treatment for atrial fibrillation in Korea: a qualitative study nested within a randomised controlled trial.

ABSTRACT:

Objective

To explore the experiences of patients with atrial fibrillation (AF) in the context of a prospective, two-parallel-armed, participant-blinded and assessor-blinded sham-controlled randomised trial.

Design

A nested qualitative study within an ongoing randomised controlled trial to explore acupuncture's antiarrhythmic effects on drug refractory acupuncture in persistent atrial fibrillation (AF) (ACU-AF trial).

Participants

Participants were recruited using purposeful sampling and a maximum variation strategy with regard to treatment allocation (treatment or control) and protocol completion (completion or non-completion).

Setting

This was a single-centre in-depth interview qualitative study conducted at a tertiary-level university hospital in Seoul, Repub

SUBMITTER: Lee SM 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5293996 | biostudies-literature | 2017 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature