Acupressure, Menopause
Conditions
Keywords
Menopause, Acupressure, Menopausal symptoms
Brief summary
This is a prospective, randomized, placebo-controlled and single-blind study planned to determine the effect of acupressure application on menopausal symptoms. The hypothesis of the study is that acupressure reduces women's menopausal symptoms.
Detailed description
Menopause is a physiological process during which most women have difficulties and face many problems. Acupressure can be taught and used safely as an effective method to manage the symptoms that women experience during menopause. This study aims to determine the effect of acupressure on menopausal symptoms. The study has a prospective, randomized, sham-controlled, single-blind design. The research was conducted with 81 women (acupressure n=40, sham acupressure n=41) attending the Menopause School in a public hospital in Türkiye between July 05, 2021 and August 02, 2021. Both groups received acupressure application thrice a week for four weeks, 12 sessions in total. The data was obtained using a personal information form and a Menopause Rating Scale.
Interventions
BEHAVIORALacupressure
Depending on the preparation and compression time on each point, an average of 10 minutes was applied to each woman, and then the person were asked to apply it to themselves. After making sure that the women learned, they were asked to apply acupressure on their own. They applied a total of 12 sessions, three times a week for a total of four weeks.
BEHAVIORALSham acupressure
Compression was applied on the bone region where the meridians did not pass, parallel to the KD1 and SP6 points (approximately 1-1.5 cm away). Similar to the acupressure group, the sham group was treated with symmetrical extremities and for similar durati
Sponsors
Mersin University
Study design
Allocation
RANDOMIZED
Intervention model
PARALLEL
Primary purpose
SUPPORTIVE_CARE
Masking
SINGLE (Subject)
Masking description
81 people who attended the menopause school and met the inclusion criteria were selected by simple random sampling. Each of the women was allowed to draw from the numbers in the bell, and those who drew odd numbers were assigned to the placebo group, and those who drew even numbers were assigned to the acupressure group. Acupressure pressure point was applied to all women included in the study. Participants were blinded because they did not know whether the women were given acupressure or placebo acupressure. Researchers could not be blinded because they were also practitioners (Melek Yeşil Bayülgen and Fatma Hikmet Yeşil). When the research was completed, the data were analyzed by a statistician who did not know the groups and the findings were reported
Eligibility
Sex/Gender
FEMALE
Healthy volunteers
No
Inclusion criteria
* Able to speak and understand Turkish * No psychiatric illness * Natural menopause * Not on hormone replacement therapy * Women who volunteered to participate in the study and did not receive any integrated therapy were included.
Exclusion criteria
* Those who have undergone menopause with the surgical method * For lower extremity vascular disease, fracture, sprain or injury, diabetes, cardiovascular disease, thyroid disease, etc. with a diagnosis * Women who received any integrative therapy were not included in the study.
Design outcomes
Primary
| Measure | Time frame | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Menopause Rating Scale (MRS) | Change from before implementation, 0th week and 4th week of practice | Menopause symptom rating scale was used to evaluate menopausal symptoms. The Turkish reliability and validity study was conducted by Can (2005). The scale consists of 11 items and 3 sub-dimensions. For each item, there are 0=None, 1=Mild, 2=Moderate, 3=Severe and 4=Very Severe options. Sub-dimensions of the scale; somatic complaints (items 1,2,3 and 11), psychological complaints (items 4,5,6 and 7), and urogenital complaints (items 8,9 and 10). The total score of the scale ranges from 0 to 44. The somatic complaints sub-dimension is scored between 0-16, the psychological complaints sub-dimension 0-16, and the urogenital complaints sub-dimension 0-12. An increase in the total score obtained from the scale indicates that the severity of the complaints increases and the quality of life is negatively affected. |
Countries
Turkey (Türkiye)
Outcome results
None listed