The effects of acupuncture on rates of clinical pregnancy among women undergoing in vitro fertilization: a systematic review and meta-analysis

E.W. Manheimer, D. van der Windt, K. Cheng, K. Stafford, J.P. Liu, J. Tierney, L.X. Lao, B.M. Berman, P. Langenberg, L.M. Bouter

    Research output: Contribution to JournalArticleAcademicpeer-review

    Abstract

    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
    Original languageEnglish
    Pages (from-to)696-713
    JournalHuman Reproduction Update
    Volume19
    Issue number6
    DOIs
    Publication statusPublished - 2013

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