Prior to Conception: The Role of an Acupuncture Protocol in Improving Women’s Reproductive Functioning Assessed by a Pilot Pragmatic Randomised Controlled Trial

Table 2

Baseline characteristics of women at trial entry to allocated treatment group.

	Acupuncture intervention	Lifestyle only intervention	value
Age (years)	33.14 (5.4)	33.93 (5.0)	0.572
Fertility history
Gravida = 0 (%)	11 (39.3)	7 (25)	0.252
Parity = 1 or >1 (%)	8 (28.6)	7 (32.1)	0.771
Duration of infertility
Mean (SD)	3.9 (3.4)	5.8 (4.6)	0.080
Reasons for infertility
Female factor (%)	15 (53.6)	11 (39.3)
Unexplained	10 (35.7)	13 (26.4)
Unknown, combined + male factor	3 (10.7)	4 (14.3)
Biomedical fertility diagnosis
PCOS (%)	12 (42.9)	9 (32.1)	0.408
Unknown (%)	10 (35.7)	14 (50)
Other (%)	6 (21.4)	5 (17.9)
BMI
Combined mean (SD)	30.0 (9.8)	30.3 (7.4)	0.893
Previous use of acupuncture (%)	13 (46.4)	12 (42.9)	0.788
Demographic details
Employment (%)
Working full time	17 (60.7)	16 (57.1)	0.528
Working part time	8 (28.6)	6 (21.4)
Unemployed/home duties	2 (7.1)	6 (17.9)
Education status (%)
School incompletion	0	2 (7.1)
School/TAFE completion	16 (57.1)	13 (46.4)	0.309
Tertiary completion	12 (42.9)	13 (46.4)
Racial origin (%)
Caucasian	16 (57.1)	19 (67.9)	0.408
English speaking background (ESB)	15	18	0.415
NESB	13	10	0.275
Marital status (%)
Married	25 (89.3)	22 (78.6)
De facto	3 (10.7)	6 (21.4)

indicates possible significance, for example, .