Comparing the effectiveness of I-BMS-informed self-help interventions in alleviating psychosocial distress for women awaiting the outcome of IVF treatment

ABSTRACT

Women undergoing in vitro fertilisation experience enormous emotional distress while waiting to find out if they are pregnant; yet their intention to seek help remains low. Interventions that can be easily self-administered may provide a promising alternative. This randomised trial compares psychosocial outcomes of 207 women who received a self-help education booklet containing either spiritually reflective exercise and relaxation techniques, spiritually reflective exercises only, or information about body-mind wellness. Results suggest that knowledge on body-mind wellness protected the women from deteriorating in a range of psychosocial well-being domains that would otherwise have occurred during the waiting period prior to the pregnancy test.

KEYWORDS:

• IVF
• infertility
• mental health
• intervention
• randomised trial

Acknowledgments

Nil.

Data availability statement

N/A.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Ethical approval

The study was reviewed and approved by the Institutional Review Board of The University of Hong Kong/Hospital Authority Hong Kong West Cluster (UW 14-252) and Human Research Ethics Committee of The University of Hong Kong (EA 1511002).

Trial registration number

This trial was registered with the HKU Clinical Trials Registry (Reference number: HKUCTR-1984).

Additional information

Funding

The project is support by the General Research Fund, Research Grants Council (RGC), Hong Kong, China [HKU27400414].