Effect of the Auricular Acupressure Therapy on Dysmenorrhea of Puberty Girls.

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to identify the effect of auricular acupressure therapy on dysmenorrhea of puberty girls.

Methods: This study was a pretest-posttest design with a nonequivalent control group. The subjects of this study were 61 girls who were middle and high school students in Seoul and the experiencing dysmenorrhea; 31 for the experimental group and 30 for the control group. The obtained data were analyzed by SPSS/WIN 12.0 program.

Results: The experimental group which applied the auricular acupressure therapy scored lower for low abdominal pain (F=136.13, p=.000), low back pain (F=62.79, p=.000). autonomic nervous system reactions (F=102.31, p=.000) and negative emotions on the menstruation (F=102.31, p=.000) compared to the control group. There were significant interaction effects of auricular acupressure on low abdominal pain, low back pain, autonomic nervous system reactions, and negative emotions on the menstruation between time and group.

Conclusion: We observed that auricular acupressure therapy is effective for reliving pain and the symptom of dysmenorrhea. Based on these result, auricular acupuncture is useful by individual nursing intervention and improves the quality of life for dysmenorrhea of puberty girls.