Auriculotherapy in primary care: profile of graduates from a large-scale course

To present the profile of graduates from a blended learning course in auriculotherapy and their perception of user acceptance and clinical outcomes of this integrative and complementary health practice, currently the most widely implemented in the Brazilian Unified Health System. The course is offered free of charge to primary health care professionals.

A digital questionnaire was sent in 2023 by email to all graduates to date (n = 13,581), addressing their professional profile, their perception of user acceptance and the clinical outcomes of auriculotherapy. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics.

A total of 5,461 professionals responded (41.34% of graduates from nine editions of the course, each with multiple classes of around 50 to 100 students). Most were women (87.82%), nurses (33.55%), physical therapists (11.59%), psychologists (5.40%), pharmacists (9.65%), nutritionists (8.05%), dentists (7.57%), and physicians (5.57%); aged 30 to 49 years (77.7%); working in primary health care (80.44%); without prior experience in integrative and complementary health practice (73.58%). After the course, 56.31% reported practicing auriculotherapy. User acceptance was reported as high or very high by 73.6% and as moderate by 22.14% of practitioners. Clinical outcomes were reported as very good or good by 79.72% and as moderate by 18.35%. of practitioners.

The graduates of the auriculotherapy course who responded to the survey are mostly women, family health professionals and members of multi-professional teams working in primary health care, who report higher user acceptance and perceive good clinical outcomes from the use of auriculotherapy.