Data collection
constipation
Using a researcher made questionnaire, demographic and clinical characteristics of older people were collected before the intervention. This questionnaire consisted of two parts. The first part included participant demographic information and the second part contained the clinical information, including past medical history, regular drug use, duration of constipation, laxative use, number of defecations, daily intake of fruits and vegetables (taken from Iranian Mini Nutrition Assessment Questionnaire; it is a well-validated tool for assessing nutrition in old people and includes questions derived from general assessment, dietary, and unit daily intake of fruits, and vegetables) [PAC-SYM (Patient Assessment of Constipation-Symptom) and PAC-QOL (Patient Assessment of Constipation-Quality of Life) questionnaires were used to measure constipation score and constipation related quality of life. The PAC-SYM and PAC-QOL questionnaires were completed before the intervention, at the end of the intervention, and at 10-day follow-up (Day 20; in order to evaluate the long-term effects of auricular acupressure after removing vaccaria seeds) [