| Summary: | 碩士 === 輔英科技大學 === 護理系碩士班 === 107 === In women, menopausal symptoms may occur after 40 years of age due to hormonal imbalance. In Taiwan, middle-aged and older women undergo workplace change or retirement, along with changes in family structure; these factors intensify their physical and psychological problems. Insomnia is one of the most common menopausal symptoms, making sleep problems a common health problem among middle-aged and older women. Auricular acupressure (AA) is an alternative medicine therapy. Its principle, similar to acupuncture, involves stimulating points on the ear with magnetized pellets or seeds to achieve the desired effect. In this study, we used the endocrine and Shenmen acupoints, through the acupoints of the streamlined and different, to understand the effects of AA on sleep quality improvement.
In this experimental study, we recruited 52 women aged 45 years or older from a community in Southern Taiwan; their PSQI global scores were higher than 5. The AA group (n = 25) was subjected to AA at the endocrine and Shenmen acupoints for 20 days, whereas the control group (n = 27) underwent no intervention. The changes in menopausal symptoms and sleep quality were compared between the two groups before and during intervention (after 10 and 20 days of intervention) on the Menopausal Symptom Scale and the Pittsburgh Sleep Scale.
The total menopausal symptom scale scores significantly increased (p = .002) after AA therapy. Moreover, after 20 days of AA, the PSQI global scores increased significantly (p < .001) after 20 days. In addition, sleep latency, habitual sleep efficiency, sleep quality, sleep disturbance, sleep medication use, and daytime dysfunction all became significantly higher after AA therapy. In this study, using AA at the endocrine and Shenmen points could improve the sleep quality of middle-aged and elderly women after menopause. In the future, the results of this study may be used by medical care providers to aid interventional research for improving the sleep quality of women with menopausal symptoms.
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