ABSTRACT
OBJECTIVE@#To evaluate the quality of the existing studies and summarize evidence of important outcomes of meta-analyses/systematic reviews (MAs/SRs) of CFS.@*METHODS@#Potentially eligible studies were searched in the following electronic databases from inception to 1 September, 2019: Chinese Biomedical Literature Database (CBM), China Science and Technology Journal Database (VIP), China National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI), WanFang Database (WF), Web of Science, Embase, PubMed and Cochrane Library. Grades of Recommendation, Assessment, Development, and Evaluation (GRADE) was used to evaluate the quality of evidence. The methodological quality of the literature was evaluated by A Measure Tool to Assess Systematic Reviews-2 (AMSTAR-2) and the quality of the report was assessed by Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-analyses (PRISMA). The intra-class correlation coefficient was used to assess the consistency of the reviewers, with an overall intraclass correlation coefficient score of 0.967.@*RESULTS@#Ten MAs/SRs were included. The overall conclusions were that acupuncture had good safety and efficacy in the treatment of CFS, but some of these results were contradictory. The GRADE indicated that out of the 17 outcomes, high-quality evidence was provided in 0 (0%), moderate in 3 (17.65%), low in 10 (58.82%), and very low in 4 (23.53%). The results of AMSTAR-2 showed that the methodological quality of all included studies was critically low. The PRISMA statement revealed that 8 articles (80%) were in line with 20 of the 27-item checklist, and 2 articles (20%) matched with 10-19 of the 27 items.@*CONCLUSION@#We found that acupuncture on treating CFS has the advantage for efficacy and safety, but the quality of SRs/MAs of acupuncture for CFS need to be improved.
Subject(s)
Humans , Acupuncture Therapy , China , Fatigue Syndrome, Chronic/therapy , Research ReportABSTRACT
OBJECTIVE@#To evaluate and compare the normativity of overview report of systematic review (Overviews) of acupuncture and moxibustion at home and abroad so as to further improve the report quality of Overviews of acupuncture and moxibustion in China and provide reliable evidences.@*METHODS@#The articles relevant with Overviews of acupuncture and moxibustion at home and abroad were retrieved by computer from the databases of CNKI, VIP, Wanfang, China BioMedical Literature database (SinoMed), PubMed, Embase and Conchrane Library, dated from the time of establishment to February 12, 2019. The preferred reporting items for Overviews (PRIO-harms) was adopted to evaluate their normativity and make the comparison of the articles between China and foreign countries.@*RESULTS@#A total of 13 articles of Overviews of acupuncture and moxibustion were included, 9 articles of them were of Chinese version and the rest were of English version. The results of PRIO-harms indicated that the proportions of the item numbers related to adequate, partial and inadequate adherence of Chinese version were 3.7%, 63.8% and 32.5%, and those of English version were 12.0%, 57.4% and 30.6% respectively. The reports on the item 10 "additional search for primary studies", the item 12 "data items" and the item 26 "Dual/(co-)authorship" were inadequate adherence by 100% in the articles of both Chinese and English version.@*CONCLUSION@#The overall information of English article report is better than Chinese one, but the reports of either Chinese or English articles are not so satisfactory. It is suggested that the Overviews report should be in reference to the specification in PRIO-harms and the Chinese researchers should study the advantages of English article report and improve the normalization and report quality so as to obtain the high-quality evidences in evidence-based medicine.
Subject(s)
Humans , Acupuncture Therapy , China , MoxibustionABSTRACT
The internationally-accepted Consolidated Standards for Reporting of Trials (CONSORT) and Standards for Reporting Interventions in Controlled Trials of Acupuncture (STRICTA) were applied to evaluate the literature quality of randomized controlled trials (RCTs) regarding acupuncture for chronic neck pain in past 10 years. The literature of RCTs regarding acupuncture for chronic neck pain was searched by computer; the English literature was searched in PubMed and EMbase, while the Chinese literature was searched in CNKI, Wanfang database, VIP database and China Biomedical Literature Database. The literature published from January 2008 to January 2018 was searched. As a result, 29 Chinese articles and 10 English articles were included. According to CONSORT, among Chinese articles, 28 articles (96.6%) described baseline data, 23 articles (79.3%) described randomization, 0 articles (0.0%) described allocation concealment, 3 articles (10.3%) described blind method; among English articles, 6 articles (60.0%) described baseline data, 8 articles (80.0%) described randomization, 8 articles (80.0%) described allocation concealment, and 7 articles (70.0%) described blind method. According to STRICTA, among Chinese articles, 8 articles (27.6%) described needle instrument selection, 18 articles (62.1%) described needle depth, 24 articles (82.8%) described needling sensation, and 0 articles (0.0%) described acupuncturist' qualifications; among English articles, 5 articles (50.0%) described needle instrument selection, 8 articles (80.0%) described needle depth, 3 articles (30.0%) described needling sensation, and 4 articles (40.0%) described acupuncturist' qualifications. In conclusion, the reporting of acupuncture details in Chinese literature is superior to that in English literature, while the reporting of trial design in English literature is slightly superior to that in Chinese literature. Moreover, both Chinese and English literature need to further improve clinical trial design to improve the reporting quality of clinical evidence based on CONSORT and STRICTA.