Development of an evidence-based auriculotherapy program for urinary incontinence in men after radical prostatectomy.

[OBJECTIVE] This study aims to develop an evidence-based auriculotherapy program for reducing urinary incontinence in men after radical prostatectomy.

[METHODS] The Medical Research Council Framework for Developing and Evaluating Complex Interventions was used to guide the intervention development process, which consisted of four stages: (1) establishing the research team; (2) identifying existing evidence; (3) identifying relevant theories; and (4) refining and modeling the program via an expert panel.

[RESULTS] An initial auriculotherapy program was developed based on available evidence from three practice standards, eight books, nine reviews, and two clinical trials. The Delphi study confirmed excellent consensus, with all items scoring ≥ 3.5 and a coefficient of variation < 0.25. The final auriculotherapy program comprises true-auriculotherapy and sham-auriculotherapy, each including six key components: (1) auricular acupoints, (2) auricular acupoints location, (3) auriculotherapy modality, (4) auricular sticking techniques, (5) auricular acupressure techniques, and (6) auriculotherapy dosage.

[CONCLUSIONS] This study develops an evidence-based and theory-driven auriculotherapy for postprostatectomy incontinence management, which will be further implemented in clinical settings to confirm its effectiveness. The methodology described in this study may provide implications for future studies to develop complex interventions in the field of alternative therapies.

[TRIAL REGISTRATION] ChiCTR2300071700.