TY - JOUR
T1 - The effects of acupuncture on rates of clinical pregnancy among women undergoing in vitro fertilization: a systematic review and meta-analysis
AU - Manheimer, E.W.
AU - van der Windt, D.
AU - Cheng, K.
AU - Stafford, K.
AU - Liu, J.P.
AU - Tierney, J.
AU - Lao, L.X.
AU - Berman, B.M.
AU - Langenberg, P.
AU - Bouter, L.M.
PY - 2013
Y1 - 2013
N2 - Background: Recent systematic reviews of adjuvant acupuncture for IVF have pooled heterogeneous trials, without examining variables that might explain the heterogeneity. The aims of our meta-analysis were to quantify the overall pooled effects of adjuvant acupuncture on IVF clinical pregnancy success rates, and evaluate whether study design-, treatment- and population-related factors influence effect estimates. Methods:We included randomized controlled trials that compared needle acupuncture administered within 1 day of embryo transfer, versus sham acupuncture or no adjuvant treatment. Our primary outcome was clinical pregnancy rates.We obtained from all investigators additional methodological details and outcome data not included in their original publications.We analysed sham-controlled and no adjuvant treatmentcontrolled trials separately, but since there were no large or significant differences between these two subsets, we pooled all trials for subgroup analyses.We prespecified 11 subgroup variables (5 clinical and 6 methodological) to investigate sources of heterogeneity, using single covariate meta-regressions. Results: Sixteen trials (4021 participants) were included in the meta-analyses. There was no statistically significant difference between acupuncture and controls when combining all trials [risk ratio (RR) 1.12, 95% confidence interval (CI), 0.96-1.31; I
AB - Background: Recent systematic reviews of adjuvant acupuncture for IVF have pooled heterogeneous trials, without examining variables that might explain the heterogeneity. The aims of our meta-analysis were to quantify the overall pooled effects of adjuvant acupuncture on IVF clinical pregnancy success rates, and evaluate whether study design-, treatment- and population-related factors influence effect estimates. Methods:We included randomized controlled trials that compared needle acupuncture administered within 1 day of embryo transfer, versus sham acupuncture or no adjuvant treatment. Our primary outcome was clinical pregnancy rates.We obtained from all investigators additional methodological details and outcome data not included in their original publications.We analysed sham-controlled and no adjuvant treatmentcontrolled trials separately, but since there were no large or significant differences between these two subsets, we pooled all trials for subgroup analyses.We prespecified 11 subgroup variables (5 clinical and 6 methodological) to investigate sources of heterogeneity, using single covariate meta-regressions. Results: Sixteen trials (4021 participants) were included in the meta-analyses. There was no statistically significant difference between acupuncture and controls when combining all trials [risk ratio (RR) 1.12, 95% confidence interval (CI), 0.96-1.31; I
U2 - 10.1093/humupd/dmt026
DO - 10.1093/humupd/dmt026
M3 - Article
VL - 19
SP - 696
EP - 713
JO - Human Reproduction Update
JF - Human Reproduction Update
SN - 1355-4786
IS - 6
ER -
