The Effect of Auricular Acupressure Therapy on Dysmenorrhea for Women Working in the Hospital

이압요법이 병원여성근로자의 월경곤란증에 미치는 효과

Purpose: This study was done to provide support material to traditional nursing interventions through investigation of the effect of Auricular acupressure therapy for female staff in the hospital who have dysmenorrhea but cannot be absent from work even with severe symptoms affecting their work and therefore cannot get proper pain management. Method: The participants in this study were 62 women were working in the G-university hospital in Jin-ju, assigned to experimental (30) and 32 control groups (32). The study method was a quasi-experimental, nonequivalent control group non-synchronized design. The experimental group received acupressure treatment (a pin was attached to tape) on the special stimulation points in the inside of the ear, 5 times for 5 seconds, morning, afternoon, and night. Tape without the pressure pin was applied to the same points for women in the control group to evaluate placebo effect. Data were collected from May to November 2007 and were analyzed using SPSS PC+ 12 version. Descriptive statistics, t-test, $x^2-test$, Fisher's exact test, paired t-test, were used to analyze the data. Results: The experimental group showed a significant decrease in dysmenorrhea compared to the control group (t=-2.743, p<.01). In the sub-part, the experimental group showed menstruation related pain (t=-3.726, p<.01), menstruation related to behavioral change (t=-2.421, p<.05) and symptoms however, there was no significant difference related to attention deficit, water retention, and negative image. Conclusion: Application of auricular acupressure therapy was approved for this study and although auricular acupressure therapy was not effective for all of the symptoms, it was effective for dysmenorrhea.