## 1 Introduction  
Osteoarthritis is the most common joint disorder, whose prevalence increases with age [1]. It is considered a high relevant cause of disability with a high socio-economic impact [2] and the knees are the most affected joints [3]. The main symptoms of knee osteoarthritis (KOA) include, among other, pain, deformation and loss of function [4; 5], which may influence the quality of life and the professional work [5; 6]. [PERSON] et al., reported that KOA has a strong negative impact on the daily living activities of the individuals, such as climbing stairs, walking or squatting activities [7; 8] leading to an elevated risk for disability. Moreover, these physical manifestations of KOA have a direct impact on wellbeing, including social interactions, mental functioning, and sleep quality [8].  
The management of KOA includes a wide range of pharmacological (i.e., paracetamol or non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs) and non-pharmacological therapeutic modalities (i.e., lifestyle changes or exercise) or even invasive interventions, such as surgery [9; 10].  
There is evidence highlighting the effectiveness of physical exercise in reducing pain and improving function in KOA individuals [9; 11], but, and due to the aforementioned limitations in daily activities, most of these individuals usually report restrictions in exercising and they use alternatives that allow mitigating their symptoms. Acupuncture [12] and auriculotherapy or ear acupuncture (a type of acupuncture) (AT) are Traditional Chinese Medicine procedures [13; 14; 15] and a relatively recent type of exercise, whole-body vibration exercise (WBVE) [12; 16; 17; 18], have been successfully used to improve clinical conditions of the KOA individuals [19].  
Parameters must be considered in the WBVE protocols [20; 21; 22; 23; 24] (e.g., frequency, peak-to-peak displacement-\(D\), acceleration peak-\(\text{a}_{\text{peak}}\), position, work and rest time and number of bout and sessions). Studies reported improvements in various clinical manifestations related to KOA after WBVE [23; 25; 26], including the decrease of pain levels, improvements of muscle strength and flexibility, and reduction of number of falls [27; 28; 29; 30; 31; 32].  
On the other hand, AT is a technique based in stimulation of points (acupoints) located on the ear. In general, AT involves the stimulation of the \"corresponding region\" (related to the organic dysfunction) and other points related to the clinical conditions [15]. AT has beneficial effects on the pain management [33; 34]. Moreover, [PERSON] et al., reported improvements on the quality of life after AT in older adults [35]. [PERSON] et al., showed that acuppressure (manual pressure--similarly to seeds) applied at the acupoints of shenmen, sympathesis, kidney, liver, heart, and subcortex was able to improve the physical pain and mental health dimensions of the SF-36 quality of life questionnaire in hypertensive individuals [36].  
In view of these arguments, both therapies isolated could have a positive effect, especially on the pain level and quality of life of KOA individuals; however, to our knowledge, only one recent study has combined both therapies to assess their effect in this population group [19]. Authors suggested that these interventions could reduce the pain [19]. [PERSON] et al., used a position where the KOA individualsremained sitting on a chair with the feet on vibrating platform (VP) base during WBVE and they found a decrease of pain level [19]. This position can be considered a passive WBVE.  
Considering the two therapies (WBVE and AT), in the management of KOA and the lack of evidence in this population, the aim of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of both interventions alone or combined. It is hypothesized that the combination of both interventions (WBVE and AT) would have additional benefits when each one of the isolated interventions were performed on the physical health domain of the quality of life as assessed by the WHOQOL-bref in KOA individuals.