Document Type : Original Article
Authors
1 Department of Acupuncture, School of Traditional Medicine. Mashhad University of Medical Sciences
2 Department of Biostatistics and Epidemiology, School of Health, Mashhad University of Medical Sciences, Mashhad, Iran
Abstract
CONTEXT: Infertility is one of the major stressful events in individual life, especially women.
Self‑efficacy means a person can perceive a potentially threatening and stressful situation as being
amenable to influences of personal control.
AIMS: This study was conducted to determine the acupressure effects on self‑efficacy and pregnancy
rate in infertile women under in vitro fertilization (IVF)/intracytoplasmic sperm injection treatment.
SETTINGS AND DESIGN: This study was a randomized controlled trial in infertile women. It performed
at Milad IVF Center, Mashhad, Iran, from September 2015 to August 2016.
MATERIALS AND METHODS: The sample size was 144 participants. The participants were
randomly divided into three groups: real and sham acupressure and control groups. Acupressure
performed on the H7 and P6 acupoints on both the hands. The infertility self‑efficacy scale was
completed before and after intervention. Beta‑human chorionic gonadotropin hormone assay was
measured to determine pregnancy. Data analysis was done by Chi‑square, Fisher’s exact, paired
sample t, Kruskal–Wallis, and ANOVA test and general linear model and multinomial logistic. Levels
of significance were reported at P < 0.05.
RESULTS: The mean age of women was 30.84 ± 5.34 years. The ovulation factor (P = 0.02) and
spouse’s job (P = 0.05) were statistically significant difference between the groups. The score of
self‑efficacy and frequency of clinical pregnancy were no significant difference among three groups.
Using linear regression, only the score of primary self‑efficacy (before intervention) was in a significant
relationship with self‑efficacy after the intervention (P < 0.001).
CONCLUSION: To our results, we recommend more research for assessing acupressure effects
on self‑efficacy and clinical pregnancy rate in infertile women.
Keywords
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