About the Authors

Mike Armour

m.armour@westernsydney.edu.au

Affiliation The National Institute of Complementary Medicine, Western Sydney University, Sydney, Australia

Hannah G. Dahlen

Affiliation School of Nursing and Midwifery, Western Sydney University, Sydney, Australia

Xiaoshu Zhu

Affiliation The National Institute of Complementary Medicine, Western Sydney University, Sydney, Australia

Cindy Farquhar

Affiliation Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, University of Auckland, Auckland, New Zealand

Caroline A. Smith

Affiliation The National Institute of Complementary Medicine, Western Sydney University, Sydney, Australia

Competing Interests

MA is the director of an acupuncture clinic in New Zealand and has recently been engaged in integrative medicine clinical practice. MA, CS and XZ are part of NICM. As a medical research institute, NICM receives research grants and donations from foundations, universities, government agencies, individuals and industry. Sponsors and donors provide untied funding for work to advance the vision and mission of the Institute. The project that is the subject of this article was not undertaken as part of a contractual relationship with any organisation other than the funding declared in the Acknowledgments. It should also be noted that NICM conducts clinical trials relevant to this topic area, for which further details can be provided on request. This does not alter our adherence to PLOS ONE policies on sharing data and materials.

Author Contributions

Conceptualization: MA CS HD XZ CF. Data curation: MA. Formal analysis: MA CS CF. Investigation: MA. Methodology: MA CS HD XZ CF. Project administration: MA CS HD. Resources: MA CS HD XZ. Supervision: CS HD XZ CF. Visualization: MA CS CF. Writing – original draft: MA. Writing – review & editing: MA CS HD XZ CF.