Development and Validation of Acupuncture Fear Scale

Objectives. Strong aversions to acupuncture have been an obstacle to understanding its intrinsic action of acupuncture. Thus, it is necessary to evaluate the nature and extent of fear of acupuncture treatment. Our study aims to develop and validate an instrument that evaluates a patient’s fear of acupuncture treatment. Methods. We have developed an acupuncture fear scale, a 16-item instrument which assesses the acupuncture fear score and uses it to survey 275 participants in South Korea, thus testing the reliability and validity of the instrument. Results. Internal consistency was high (Cronbach’s alpha = 0.935). Test-retest reliability (Spearman’s rank correlation coefficient) among 33 participants out of 275 ranged from 0.565 to 0.797 (P