Auricular Acupressure Integrated With a Smartphone Application for Weight Reduction

"6 to 8 Vaccariae Semen ear patches will be affixed on one ear of the patient. The patient will be required to press on the ear patches 3 times a day, and 30 minutes before a meal. Every 3 to 4 days, the patient will visit the clinic to change a new set of ear patches on the same auricular acupoints of the opposite ear alternately. The whole course of intervention will be 8 weeks. The smartphone app will send scheduled pop-up notifications to remind patients to press on the ear patches. The patient will be required to enter the number of times pressing and of defaecation every day on the smartphone application. The smartphone application will send more notifications to the patient if he/ she has a low compliance. When the participants record the number of times pressing on the auricular acupoints, positive reinforcement messages will pop-up, such as Excellent job! for those with good compliance while You are almost there! Keep going! for those with poor compliance."