Effect of Acupuncture Therapy on Pain Reduction in Dysmenorrhea Patients: A Meta-Analysis

Abstract

Background: Dysmenorrhea is a common com­plaint that usually occurs in adolescent girls and women of reproductive age. Dysmenorrhea is not a disease, but a symptom that occurs due to ab­nor­malities in the pelvic cavity and greatly disrupts women's activities. Acupuncture therapy is a therapeutic method by inserting a needle at the acupoint to reduce pain in dysmenorrhea patients. This study aimed to estimate how great the effect of acupuncture therapy on pain reduc­tion in dysmenorrhea patients based on the re­sults of previous studies. Subjects and Method: This study was a systematic study and a meta-analysis, with the following PICO: Population= dysmenorrhea pa­tients aged 14-40 years, Intervention= acu­punc­ture therapy, Comparison= no acupuncture the­rapy, and Outcome= pain reduction in dysme­norrhea patients. The articles were obtained from several databases including PubMed, Google scho­lar, and Hindawi. These articles were collected for 1 month. The keywords were "acu­pun­c­ture pain" OR "acupuncture primary dysme­norrhea" AND "acupuncture for dysmenorrhea" AND "randomized controlled trial". The included articles were full-text articles with a randomized controlled trial study design. The articles were collected using PRISMA flow diagram. These articles were analyzed using the Review Manager (RevMan) 5.3 application. Results: 7 articles from South Korea, Taiwan, Spain, China, India, and Hong Kong were reviewed in this meta-analysis. This study showed that acupuncture therapy was -1.16 better in reducing pain in dysmenorrhea patients (Standardized Mean Difference= -1.16; 95%CI= -1.92 to -0.41; p= 0.003). Conclusion: Acupuncture therapy can affect pain reduction in dysmenorrhea patients. Keywords: Acupuncture pain, Acupuncture dys­­menorrhea, Primary dysmenorrhea Correspondence: Elisa Novitasari, Masters Program In Public Health, Universitas Sebelas Maret, Jl. Ir. Sutami 36A, Surakarta 57126, Central Java, Indonesia. Email: elisanovita58@gmail.com. Journal of Maternal and Child Health (2020), 05(06): 705-714 https://doi.org/10.26911/thejmch.2020.05.06.10.