“The Monkey on Your Shoulder”: A Qualitative Study of Lymphoedema Patients’ Attitudes to and Experiences of Acupuncture and Moxibustion

Table 3

Participant characteristics.

Characteristic	HNC,	BC,	Total,
Age, years
Mean [minimum–maximum]	63.7 [50–83]	58.5 [43–73]	59.9 [43–83]
Gender
Female, [%]	3	17	20
Male, [%]	3 [	0	3
Ethnicity
White [%]	5	15	20
Asian [%]	1	2	3
Education
Less than compulsory	2	0	2
Compulsory	2	4	6
Postcompulsory	0	8	8
University	2 [	3	5
Postgraduate	0	2	2
Employment
Retired	5	6	11
Not employed	0	3	3
Working part-time	0	5	5
Working full-time	1	3	4
Duration of lymphoedema, months
Mean (SD)	60.00 (46.63)	46.76 (31.88)	50.22 (35.62)
Minimum–maximum	6–108	12–132	6–132
Months from surgery to acu/moxa tx
Mean (SD)	74.17 (42.56)	93.71 (81.55)	88.61 (72.97)
Minimum–maximum	16–131	6–278	6–278

HNC: head and neck cancer, BC: breast cancer, SD: standard deviation, and tx: treatment.