Reporting quality of acupuncture overviews: A methodological investigation based on the PRIOR statement.

OBJECTIVE: Acupuncture overviews are increasing rapidly; however, their reporting quality is yet unclear. We aimed to investigate the reporting quality of relevant overviews according to the preferred reporting items for overviews of reviews (PRIOR) statement. METHODS: We systematically searched PubMed from inception to August 16, 2022 for overviews on acupuncture therapies. Reporting quality of included overviews was evaluated using the PRIOR statement, and the results were cross-checked. Multiple linear regression analysis was used to assess the predictors of the reporting completeness. GraphPad 9.4 was utilized to generate an evidence map, Excel 2019 was used to extract and manage data, and R 4.2.3 was used for data analysis. RESULTS: A total of 49 overviews published from 2006 to 2022 were included, of which China ranked first with 38 overviews. The most frequently searched database was PubMed/ Medline (n = 48, 98%), and commonly used methodological quality assessment tool was AMSTAR-2 (n = 14, 29%). The overarching themes centered on acupuncture for obstetrics, gynecology, reproductive diseases, as well as depression, anxiety, and insomnia. Reporting quality needs to be improved involving the definition of systematic reviews (SRs), overlap of primary studies and SRs, methods for managing discrepant data across SRs, risk of bias in primary studies, heterogeneity, and sensitivity analysis of synthesized results, reporting bias assessment, and registration and protocol. Moreover, publication in recent years and receiving funding support were significantly associated with higher overall reporting quality score (P < 0.05). CONCLUSION: Based on the PRIOR statement, this methodological study indicates that the reporting quality of the included acupuncture overviews is poor. In the future, authors of overviews are encouraged to use the PRIOR statement for standardized reporting. Furthermore, it is recommended that journal editors mandate the inclusion of this statement in authors' reports and require a complete PRIOR checklist.

[Overview of systematic reviews of Chinese herbal injections for sepsis].

In this study, an overview of systematic reviews/Meta-analysis(SR/MA) of Chinese herbal injections for sepsis was performed to provide references for clinical practice and promote the quality improvement of clinical evidence. Eight Chinese and English databases such as CNKI, Medline, and EMbase were electronically searched for SR/MA of Chinese herbal injections for sepsis from database inception to June 2022. AMSTAR 2, PRISMA 2020, and GRADE system, combined with Recommendations for Clinical Evidence Grading on Traditional Chinese Medicine Based on Evidence Body, were applied to evaluate the methodological quality, reporting quality, and evidence quality of the included articles. Twenty-seven articles of SR/MA were included, containing four Chinese herbal injections(Xuebijing Injection, Shenfu Injection, Shenmai Injection, and Shengmai Injection). AMSTAR 2 checklist showed that the methodological quality of the SR/MA ranged from moderate to very low. Item 2(prior study design) was the critical item with poor scores, and the non-critical items with poor scores were items 3(explain the selection of the study designs), items 10(report on the sources of funding), and items 16(conflicts of interest stated). In terms of PRISMA 2020, items in eight topics with complete reporting of missing>50%, including search strategy, certainty assessment, results of syntheses, certainty of evidence, registration and protocol, support, competing interests, availability of data, code and other materials. The included SR/MA involved 30 outcome indicators. Evidence quality of mortality, APACHE Ⅱ, and safety, the top three outcome indicators, was evaluated, and all of them were graded as the medium level. The lack of random allocation sequence, allocation concealment mechanism, blinding, and trial sample size was the main reason for the reduction of the evidence level. The available evidence shows that Chinese herbal injections can serve as an effective and safe adjunctive treatment for sepsis, which can reduce mortality, inhibit inflammation, improve coagulation function, and regulate immune function, tissue perfusion, and oxygenation in patients with sepsis. However, the quality of SR/MA was suboptimal, and more high-quality SR/MA is needed to provide evidence to support the efficacy and safety of Chinese herbal injections in the treatment of sepsis.

Reporting quality of randomized controlled trials of angina pectoris with integrated traditional Chinese and western medicine interventions: a cross-sectional study.

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVE: Integrated traditional Chinese and western medicine (ITCWM), as a representative type of complex intervention, is commonly used for the treatment of angina pectoris (AP) in clinical practice. However, it is unclear whether the details of ITCWM interventions, such as rationale for selection and design, implementation and potential interactions for different therapies, were adequately reported. Therefore, this study aimed to describe the reporting characteristics and quality in randomized controlled trials (RCTs) of AP with ITCWM interventions. METHODS: Through a search of 7 electronic databases, we identified RCTs of AP with ITCWM interventions published in both English and Chinese from 1st Jan 2017 to 6th Aug 2022. The general characteristics of included studies were summarized, further, the quality of reporting was assessed based on three Checklists, including the CONSORT with 36 items (except for one item 1b about abstract), the CONSORT for abstracts (17 items), and a self-designed ITCWM-related checklist (21 items covering rationale and details of interventions, outcome assessment and analysis). The quality of RCTs published in English and Chinese, as well as journals and dissertations were also compared. RESULTS: A total of 451 eligible RCTs were included. For the reporting compliance, the mean score (95% Confidence Interval) of the CONSORT (72 scores in total), CONSORT for abstract (34 scores in total), and ITCWM-related (42 scores in total) checklists was 27.82 (27.44-28.19), 14.17 (13.98-14.37) and 21.06 (20.69-21.43), respectively. More than half items were evaluated as poor quality (reporting rate < 50%) among each Checklist. Moreover, the reporting quality of publications in English journals was higher than that in Chinese journals in terms of the CONSORT items. The reporting of published dissertations was better than that in journal publications regarding both the CONSORT and ITCWM-specific items. CONCLUSION: Although the CONSORT appears to have enhanced the reporting of RCTs in AP, the quality of ITCWM specifics is variable and in need of improvement. Reporting guideline of the ITCWM recommendations should be developed thus to improve their quality.

Descriptions of sham acupuncture in randomised controlled trials: a critical review of the literature.

BACKGROUND: Sham acupuncture is usually used to assess the specific effects of acupuncture. However, the reporting quality of sham acupuncture remains unclear despite its critical importance in understanding and analyzing the effects of acupuncture. This paper presents a literature review aimed at assessing the quality of reporting of sham acupuncture in randomized controlled trials (RCTs) based on STRICTA 2010 and TIDieR-Placebo. METHODS: Three electronic English-language databases (PubMed, MEDLINE and Embase) were searched from inception to March 7, 2022, and RCTs of sham acupuncture were identified. The reporting quality of sham acupuncture was assessed in accordance with the items recommended in STRICTA 2010 and TIDieR-Placebo. The reporting quality of other items related to sham acupuncture apart from items from these two checklists was also captured to further assess the reporting quality of sham acupuncture. RESULTS: A total of 609 eligible studies were included. For all of the items recommended in STRICTA 2010 and TIDieR-Placebo, 100% of the studies reported a brief name that described the sham acupuncture, 93.9% studies reported the needle type, and 90.0% reported the names of the points used. Other items for which the reporting rates were above 50% included the number, frequency and duration of treatment sessions; needle retention time; and number of needle insertions per subject per session. Overall, 49.4% of the studies revealed the rationale why sham acupuncture was chosen, 39.7% of the studies involving insertion processes reported the depth of insertion, and 37.9% of the studies reported the needle manufacturer. Other items for which the reporting rates were below 30% included practitioner-related information, response sought, evaluation of blinding, intervention mode and environment, assisting tools, and the extent to which the treatment was varied. The items "Modifications", "How well (planned)" and "How well (actual)" were not reported in any of the analyzed studies. CONCLUSIONS: The overall reporting quality of sham acupuncture in RCTs was suboptimal. Although STRICTA 2010 and TIDieR-Placebo could be beneficial for describing sham acupuncture, neither can offer recommendations specifically for sham acupuncture. There is thus an urgent need to develop specialized guidelines for reporting sham acupuncture in clinical trials.

Methodological and reporting quality evaluation of Buyang Huanwu decoction for experimental cerebral ischemia-reperfusion injury: a systematic review.

Buyang Huanwu decoction, a classic traditional Chinese prescription, has been used to prevent and treat stroke for hundreds of years. An increasing number of the laboratory research on Buyang Huanwu decoction used in treating cerebral ischemia-reperfusion injury have been published recently. However, the problem of methodological and reporting quality of some studies is lack of assessment. This study aims to evaluate the methodological and reporting quality of the research on Buyang Huanwu decoction against experimental cerebral ischemia-reperfusion injury. A comprehensive search on six databases was performed. Two researchers independently screened the literature considering the eligibility criteria. Methodological and reporting quality of the included studies were evaluated by the Systematic Review Centre for Laboratory Animal Experimentation (SYRCLE) risk-of-bias tool and Animal Research: Reporting of In Vivo Experiments (ARRIVE) guideline. Forty-five studies met the inclusion criteria. No study achieved a decent overall rating in using the SYRCLE tool (percentage of items with "low risk" ≥ 50%). Of the 22 items on the SYRCLE tool, only 7 items (31.82%) were rated as "low risk" in more than 50% of the included studies. Of the 39 items of ARRIVE guideline, 14 (35.9%) items were rated as "yes" in more than 50% of the included studies. The methodological and reporting quality of Buyang Huanwu decoction for experimental cerebral ischemia-reperfusion injury was substandard, which needed to be further improved. The limitations should be addressed when planning similar studies in the future. Additionally, these findings provided evidence-based guidance for future preclinical studies evaluating the efficacy of Buyang Huanwu decoction in the treatment of cerebral ischemia-reperfusion injury.

Reporting and methodological quality of acupuncture network meta-analyses could be improved: an evidence mapping.

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: To evaluate and map the reporting and methodological quality of network meta-analysis (NMA) on acupuncture. METHODS: Published acupuncture NMAs were searched through eight databases from inception to February 2022. The reporting and methodological quality of included studies was assessed using the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses for Network Meta-Analysis (PRISMA-NMA) statement and the Assessment of Multiple Systematic Reviews 2 (AMSTAR-2) checklist. RESULTS: A total of 113 NMAs were identified. Most (99, 87.61%) studies were performed in China. Most studies focused on multiple acupuncture techniques (82.30%), and the main studied ailments were pain and poststroke sequelae (20.24%). The median (interquartile range (IQR)) score of the reporting quality was 26.5 (25-28.5). However, poor reporting rates in the protocol and registration (33.63%) and geometry of the network (35.40%), especially for China-based studies, were identified. The methodological quality of only 2 (1.77%) English studies was high. The reporting rate of Chinese studies was below 15% on each of items 4, 7, 10, and 12. CONCLUSION: The reporting quality of the NMAs was moderate, but the methodological quality was very low. The reporting and methodological quality of future NMAs, especially for Chinese studies, need further improvement.

How about the RCTs' quality of acupuncture treatment for female urinary incontinence in recent 20 years? A report quality assessment.

PURPOSE: To evaluate the quality of randomized controlled trials (RCTs) of acupuncture on female urinary incontinence (UI). METHODS: We searched for related RCTs of acupuncture on female UI from seven databases (PubMed, Embase, Cochrane library, Web of Science, Medline, ClinicalKey, and Clinical trials). We applied CONSORT (2010 year) and STRICTA criteria to evaluate the relevant factors of included RCTs. Two trained researchers scored independently, and concordance was assessed by Cohen's к-statistic. The median and interquartile range summarized the CONSORT and STRICTA scores of the included studies. In addition, two independent sample t tests were used to assess the differences in the study quality between the 2000-2010 and the 2011-2022 years. RESULTS: A total of 25 RCTs were finally included, and the scores were consistent between different assessors. The average CONSORT score was 10.50 (IQR 9.0-15.0) (total score was 25.0). Overall, the studies generally included scientific background (24/25, 96%), inclusion and exclusion criteria (24/25, 96%), outcome indicators (24/25, 96%), randomization methods (21/25, 84%), generalizability (19/25, 76%), and financial support (15/25, 60%). Most lacked sample size calculation (5/25, 20%), type of randomization (5/25, 20%), blinding (6/25, 24%), case screening period and follow-up (4/25, 16%), and study registration (6/25, 24%), etc. The average STRICTA score was 3.380 (IQR 3.02-3.95) (total score was 6.0). There had a lack of education on treatment methods for patients (3/25, 12%) and the qualification of acupuncturists (6/25, 24%). CONCLUSION: The overall quality of RCTs on acupuncture treatment of female UI was suboptimal. It is still necessary to improve the research methods, especially the application of random methods, blinding, the interpretation of treatment, and the identification qualification of acupuncturists.

Overview of systematic reviews of Chinese herbal injections for sepsis / 中国中药杂志

In this study, an overview of systematic reviews/Meta-analysis(SR/MA) of Chinese herbal injections for sepsis was performed to provide references for clinical practice and promote the quality improvement of clinical evidence. Eight Chinese and English databases such as CNKI, Medline, and EMbase were electronically searched for SR/MA of Chinese herbal injections for sepsis from database inception to June 2022. AMSTAR 2, PRISMA 2020, and GRADE system, combined with Recommendations for Clinical Evidence Grading on Traditional Chinese Medicine Based on Evidence Body, were applied to evaluate the methodological quality, reporting quality, and evidence quality of the included articles. Twenty-seven articles of SR/MA were included, containing four Chinese herbal injections(Xuebijing Injection, Shenfu Injection, Shenmai Injection, and Shengmai Injection). AMSTAR 2 checklist showed that the methodological quality of the SR/MA ranged from moderate to very low. Item 2(prior study design) was the critical item with poor scores, and the non-critical items with poor scores were items 3(explain the selection of the study designs), items 10(report on the sources of funding), and items 16(conflicts of interest stated). In terms of PRISMA 2020, items in eight topics with complete reporting of missing>50%, including search strategy, certainty assessment, results of syntheses, certainty of evidence, registration and protocol, support, competing interests, availability of data, code and other materials. The included SR/MA involved 30 outcome indicators. Evidence quality of mortality, APACHE Ⅱ, and safety, the top three outcome indicators, was evaluated, and all of them were graded as the medium level. The lack of random allocation sequence, allocation concealment mechanism, blinding, and trial sample size was the main reason for the reduction of the evidence level. The available evidence shows that Chinese herbal injections can serve as an effective and safe adjunctive treatment for sepsis, which can reduce mortality, inhibit inflammation, improve coagulation function, and regulate immune function, tissue perfusion, and oxygenation in patients with sepsis. However, the quality of SR/MA was suboptimal, and more high-quality SR/MA is needed to provide evidence to support the efficacy and safety of Chinese herbal injections in the treatment of sepsis.

Analysis of Taijiquan-related clinical trial registration characteristics and reporting quality / 国际中医中药杂志

Objective:To analyze the registration characteristics and reporting quality of Taijiquan-related clinical trials.Methods:A database search of the China Clinical Trials Registry (ChiCTR) and ClinicalTrials.gov was performed by computer to collect basic information, study content, interventions, and other registration information of Taijiquan-related clinical trials from inception to June 30, 2022. The WHO TRDS was used to evaluate the registration quality of clinical trials.Results:Totally 381 Taijiquan-related clinical trials were incorporated, of which 241 (63.25%) were prospective registration and 140 (36.75%) were retrospective registration. The quantity of Taijiquan-related clinical trial registrations generally showed an increasing trend, reaching a peak in 2020 (14.70%). The number of clinical trials registered in Shanghai accounted for the most (9.97%). The largest contributor to the registered trials was Fujian University of Traditional Chinese Medicine (4.46%). 55.12% of registered studies were funded by hospitals and universities. The registered studies were most focused on cognitive impairment. 74.54% of the studies adopted randomized parallel controls, and the sample size was mainly between 20 and 200 (80.31%), and the age of the subjects was concentrated above 39 years (53.28%). The average report completion rate of WHO TRDS items was 86.90%.Conclusions:Presently, the development trend of clinical trials related to Taijiquan is relatively promising. However, imbalances exist in some aspects, for instance distribution of registration areas and institutions, funding allocation, and population of subjects. The description of some registration items is missing or not comprehensive, so corresponding measures are required to improve the quality of clinical trial design and to optimize registration details.

[Current status, challenges and countermeasures of acupuncture data mining literature researches].

Data mining is an analytical method for revealing the implicit internal relations among the data elements, and is also widely used in the field of acupuncture and moxibustion of traditional Chinese medicine. However, there exist some significant deficits in the rationality of design and implementation, preciseness, repeatability, comprehensiveness, objectivity and depth of insights in some current acupuncture data mining researches. In the present paper, we summarized the literature on acupuncture data mining published in the past five years, and analyzed their common shortcomings in the design, implementation and reporting process, including too broad research scope, fuzzy and limited descriptions about the inclusion criteria, not definite retrieval scope and strategy, rarely seen original researches about the assessment of the report quality, lack of detailed descriptions about the literature screening and data processing procedure, incomplete narration about the research outcomes and their clinical significance, and lack of comprehensiveness and subjectiveness and available coping strategies in the discussion of the research papers, etc., in order to promote the improvement of literature methodology and quality of acupuncture data mining research, and then improve the reliability and clinical reference value of such research results.

Effects of Acupuncture on Cancer Pain in Animal Intervention Studies: A Systematic Review and Quality Assessment.

BACKGROUND: Preclinical studies often provide the evidence base for clinical studies. However, the design and reporting of preclinical trial results are inadequate, resulting in poor reproducibility and clinical translatability. We aimed to systematically evaluate the methodology and reporting quality of animal studies of acupuncture for cancer pain. METHODS: About 7 databases were searched for animal research articles on acupuncture for cancer pain from the beginning of the database to January 31, 2022. ARRIVE guidelines, STRICTA, and SYRCLE risk of bias tools were used to assess the reporting quality and risk of bias of the selected studies. RESULTS: A total of 18 studies were evaluated. Of the 22 items on the SYRCLE tool, only 6 items had a positive reporting rate of more than 50%. Of the 39 items in the ARRIVE guidelines, 14 were rated excellent, and the least frequently reported checklist items were 7. Out of the 17 STRICTA checklist items analyzed, 10 were considered appropriately reported in more than 80% of the studies, while 4 were correctly reported in less than 20%. CONCLUSIONS: Some crucial points in the design, implementation, and reporting of the experiments included in the study were not well developed, which could significantly affect the clarity, reproducibility, and translatability of the experiments. There is a need to fully implement scientific tool guidelines for future experimental studies in order to improve the quality of preclinical studies and facilitate effective translation of their results to the clinic.

[Evaluation of methodological and reporting quality of domestic clinical guidelines for hyperuricemia].

This study aims to evaluate the methodological and reporting quality of diagnosis and treatment guidelines for hyperuricemia as well as the expert consensuses and promote the understanding and application of the diagnosis and treatment guidelines for hyperuricemia. With "hyperuricemia" "guidelines" "consensus" "recommendations" as the key words in titles, the authors searched for the published clinical guidelines on hyperuricemia in Chinese against CNKI, Wanfang, VIP, Medlive and the official website of the industry association. The retrieval time limit was until May 31, 2021. The appraisal of guidelines for research and evaluation Ⅱ(AGREEⅡ) and the reporting items for practice guidelines in health care(RIGHT) were employed to evaluate the methodological quality and reporting quality of 14 guidelines/consensuses included. The average scores of the guidelines/consensuses were 80.85%(48.61%-98.61%) for the domain of scope and purpose, 34.52%(0-69.44%) for the domain of stakeholder involvement, 35.53%(6.25%-92.19%) for the domain of rigor of development, 55.85%(23.61%-86.11%) for the domain of clarity of presentation, 26.19%(0-76.04%) for the domain of applicability, and 21.42%(0-50.00%) for the domain of editorial independence. Nine guidelines/consensuses were of medium overall quality with grade B recommendation, and five guidelines/consensuses were of poor quality with grade C recommendation. The RIGHT classified the fourteen guidelines/consensuses into one of high reporting quality, three of medium reporting quality, and ten of low reporting quality. The results of this study indicate that the standardization and rigor of the methodological quality and the reporting quality of the clinical guidelines/consensuses for hyperuricemia in China remain to be strengthened.

Quality of reporting in chiropractic mixed methods research: a methodological review protocol.

BACKGROUND: Mixed methods designs are increasingly used in health care research to enrich findings. However, little is known about the frequency of use of this methodology in chiropractic research, or the quality of reporting among chiropractic studies using mixed methods. OBJECTIVE: To quantify the use and quality of mixed methods in chiropractic research, and explore the association of study characteristics (e.g., authorship, expertise, journal impact factor, country and year of publication) with reporting quality. METHODS: We will conduct a systematic search of MEDLINE, EMBASE, CINAHL, and the Index to Chiropractic Literature to identify all chiropractic mixed methods studies published from inception of each database to December 31, 2020. Articles reporting the use of both qualitative and quantitative methods, or mixed qualitative methods, will be included. Pairs of reviewers will perform article screening, data extraction, risk of bias with the Mixed Methods Appraisal Tool (MMAT), and appraisal of reporting quality using the Good Reporting of A Mixed Methods Study (GRAMMS) guideline. We will explore the correlation between GRAMMS and MMAT scores, and construct generalized estimating equations to explore factors associated with reporting quality. DISCUSSION: This will be the first methodological review to examine the reporting quality of published mixed methods studies involving chiropractic research. The results of our review will inform opportunities to improve reporting in chiropractic mixed methods studies. Our results will be disseminated in a peer-reviewed publication and presented publicly at conferences and as part of a doctoral thesis.

Problems with the outcome measures in randomized controlled trials of traditional Chinese medicine in treating chronic heart failure caused by coronary heart disease: a systematic review.

BACKGROUND: Traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) has gained widespread application in treating chronic heart failure (CHF) secondary to coronary heart disease (CHD). However, the sound clinical evidence is still lacking. Corresponding clinical trials vary considerably in the outcome measures assessing the efficacy of TCM, some that showed the improvement of clinical symptoms are not universally acknowledged. Rational outcome measures are the key to evaluate efficacy and safety of each treatment and significant elements of a convincing clinical trial. We aimed to summarize and analyze outcome measures in randomized controlled trials (RCTs) of TCM in treating CHF caused by CHD, subsequently identify the present problems and try to put forward solutions. METHODS: We systematically searched databases including Embase, PubMed, Cochrane Library, CBM, CNKI, VIP and Wanfang from inception to October 8, 2018, to identify eligible RCTs using TCM interventions for treating CHF patients caused by CHD. Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews (CDSR) was searched to include Cochrane systematic reviews (CSRs) of CHF. Two authors independently assessed the risk of bias of the included RCTs according to the Cochrane Handbook. Outcome measures of each trial were extracted and analyzed those compared with the CSRs. We also evaluated the reporting quality of the outcome measures. RESULTS: A total of 31 RCTs were included and the methodology quality of the studies was generally low. Outcome measures in these RCTs were mortality, rehospitalization, efficacy of cardiac function, left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF), 6 min' walk distance (6MWD) and Brain natriuretic peptide (BNP), of which mortality and rehospitalization are clinical end points while the others are surrogate outcomes. The reporting rate of mortality and rehospitalization was 12.90% (4/31), the other included studies reported surrogate outcomes. As safety measure, 54.84% of the studies reported adverse drug reactions. Two trials were evaluated as high in reporting quality of outcomes and that of the other 29 studies was poor due to lack of necessary information for reporting. CONCLUSIONS: The present RCTs of TCM in treating CHF secondary to CHD did not concentrate on the clinical end points of heart failure, which were generally small in size and short in duration. Moreover, these trials lacked adequate safety evaluation, had low quality in reporting outcomes and certain risk of bias in methodology. For objective assessment of the efficacy and safety of TCM in treating CHF secondary to CHD, future research should be rigorous designed, set end points as primary outcome measures and pay more attention to safety evaluation throughout the trial.

Overall Reporting Descriptions of Acupuncture for Chronic Pain in Randomized Controlled Trials in English Journals.

BACKGROUND: Whether the clinical effect of acupuncture in chronic pain is effective has always been a hot topic of research, which has a great relationship with the overall reporting descriptions of acupuncture, especially the sham acupuncture intervention. To confirm the effectiveness of acupuncture, more clinical studies are often required. Therefore, it is necessary to report high-quality and complete descriptions of acupuncture in clinical trials. This study aims to assess the overall reporting quality of acupuncture for chronic pain in randomized controlled trials (RCTs). METHODS: Three databases from inception to March 2020 were searched, to assess the quality of acupuncture reports included the RCTs based on the pain-specific supplement to Consolidated Standards for Reporting Trials (CONSORT) and Standards for Reporting Interventions in Controlled Trials of Acupuncture (STRICTA) guidelines. The quality of sham acupuncture descriptions was evaluated based on the Template for Intervention Description and Replication (TIDieR)-placebo checklist. Descriptive statistics and analysis of the results were carried out according to the percentage of each item. RESULTS: A total of 74 RCTs were included which met the inclusion criteria. Based on the pain-specific CONSORT, the reporting rates of "Statistical methods", "Participant flow", and "Blinding" were "52.70%", "70.27%", and "77.03%", respectively. The weakest reported items in STRICTA were related to the depth of insertion (Item 2c, 54.05%) and the setting and context of treatment (Item 4b, 0.00%). Based on the TIDieR-placebo checklist, the reporting rates of "Item 12", "Item 11", "Item 13", "Item 3", and "Item 4" were "8.11%", "10.81%", "29.73%", " 44.59% ", and "47.30%", respectively. CONCLUSION: At present, the overall report quality of acupuncture treatment for chronic pain in English journals is acceptable, but the report rate in some aspects is still low. In the future, researchers should report RCTs of acupuncture following cleaner checklists and guidelines.

Assessment of the reporting quality of randomised controlled trials of massage.

OBJECTIVE: To assess the reporting quality of randomised controlled trials (RCTs) of massage, particularly whether necessary elements related to massage interventions were adequately reported. METHODS: A total of 8 electronic databases were systematically searched for massage RCTs published in English and Chinese from the date of their inception to June 22, 2020. Quality assessment was performed using three instruments, namely the CONSORT (Consolidated Standards of Reporting Trials) 2010 Checklist (37 items), the CONSORT Extension for NPT (Nonpharmacologic Treatments) 2017 checklist (18 items), and a self-designed massage-specific checklist (16 items) which included massage rationale, intervention and control group details. Descriptive statistics were additionally used to analyse the baseline characteristics of included trials. RESULTS: A total of 2,447 massage RCTs were identified, of which most (96.8%) were distributed in China. For the completeness of CONSORT, NPT Extension, and massage-specific checklists, the average reporting percentages were 50%, 10% and 45%, respectively. Of 68 assessed items in total (exclusion of 3 repeated items on intervention), 42 were poorly presented, including 18 CONSORT items, 15 NPT items, and 9 massage-specific items. Although the overall quality of reporting showed slightly improvement in articles published after 2010, the international (English) journals presented a higher score of the CONSORT and NPT items, while the Chinese journals were associated with the increased score of massage-specific items. CONCLUSION: The quality of reporting of published massage RCTs is variable and in need of improvement. Reporting guideline "CONSORT extension for massage" should be developed.

A Scoping Review of Cross-Sectional Studies on Traditional Chinese Medicine.

Cross-sectional studies on traditional Chinese medicine (TCM-CSs) have become the most published type of TCM observational study; however, the research scope of current TCM-CSs is unknown. A scoping review of the literature was performed. A descriptive approach to summarize the core study characteristics was prepared, along with structured tables and figures to identify salient points of similarities and differences noted across studies. The reporting quality of TCM-CSs was assessed according to the Strengthening the Reporting of Observational Studies in Epidemiology (STROBE) cross-sectional checklist. Eight databases (Embase, CENTRAL, MEDLINE, AMED, CBM, CNKI, WanFang, and VIP) were systematically searched for TCM-CSs published up until 20 January 2020. The literature screening and evaluating were independently conducted by two researchers. When there was disagreement, a third-party senior researcher made the judgment. A total of 198 TCM-CSs published between 1997 and 2019 were included, 160 English studies and 38 Chinese studies, respectively. More TCM-CSs were published in each successive year. The journal Evidence-Based Complementary and Alternative Medicine published more TCM-CSs (24) than any other journal. Most TCM-CSs were conducted in mainland China (81, 40.9%), followed by Taiwan, China (44, 22.2%) and HKSAR, China (19, 9.6%). The most commonly used sampling method was purposive sampling (94, 47.5%), following by convenience sampling (60, 30.3%). The research topics can be summarized in four major categories as follows: constitution-related research (11.1%), TCM pattern-related research (18.7%), TCM intervention-related research (55.1%), and others (15.6%). The average sufficient reporting rate of included TCM-CSs according to the STROBE cross-sectional checklist was 45.6%. Papers written in English reported 9 items (items 2, 4, 14a, 16a, 18, 19, 20, 21, and 22) more frequently than papers written in Chinese. The number of TCM-CSs is increasing. Research topics are diverse; however, the reporting quality is unsatisfactory. In particular, TCM-CSs need greater transparency and standardization.

RIGHT for acupuncture: An extension of the RIGHT statement for clinical practice guidelines on acupuncture.

OBJECTIVE: In 2017, the International Standard for Reporting Items for practice Guideline in HealThcare (RIGHT) published reporting guidelines to enhance transparency and clarity in the process of developing clinical practice guidelines (CPGs). Given the original tool was developed in 2017 and demanded in developing and reporting high quality of acupuncture CPGs, an extension with a focus on a specific reporting checklist was warranted. STUDY DESIGN AND SETTING: The study was designed based on the methodology recommended by the Enhancing the Quality and Transparency Of Health Research (EQUATOR) Network with modification accordingly. A reporting checklist and its elaboration and explanations for users were developed. RESULTS: A checklist of seven sections (Basic information, Background, Evidence, Recommendations, Funding, Declaration and management of interest, Other information), twenty-three first level items and forty-three second level items was developed. We clarified the rationales of the items and provided explanations and examples of each item for additional guidance. CONCLUSION: The RIGHT for Acupuncture checklist identifies a set of items to be reported when reviewing clinical practice guidelines on acupuncture. This extension can be expected to improve the reporting quality of CPGs on acupuncture.

Tools to Assess the Risk of Bias and Reporting Quality of Randomized Controlled Trials in Rehabilitation.

OBJECTIVES: (1) To determine whether new tools and items have been developed to evaluate the risk of bias (RoB) and reporting of randomized controlled trials (RCTs) in rehabilitation; (2) to determine which items are included in the existing reporting guidelines, and to create a matrix of items to report and conduct trials in rehabilitation as the first step for a starting a rigorous validation process. DATA SOURCES: Searches were conducted in MEDLINE, EMBASE, and Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health databases. STUDY SELECTION: Studies should describe a newly developed tool to evaluate the RoB or quality of reporting for RCTs in the area of rehabilitation. DATA EXTRACTION: (1) First, we extracted items from new tools identified by the electronic search strategies and then (2) we looked at the items provided by the Consolidated Standards of Reporting Trials statement and its relevant extensions. We determined whether these items were already included in our matrix of items. Items were classified based on methodological domains they accomplish, biases they were able to target, and whether they guide reporting or conduct. DATA SYNTHESIS: Among the 1596 citations found, 23 articles were potentially relevant. From these, only 3 new scales (National Institute for Complementary Medicine Acupuncture Network, Quality of reports on spa and balneotherapy [SPAC], Assessment of Study Quality and Reporting in Exercise) were found. In addition, the newly updated Cochrane RoB tool (RoB 2.0) was included. Our matrix contained 122 unique items for any rehabilitation area, 46 items (37.7%) were related to conduct, and 58 (47.5%) were related to the reporting; 18 (14.8%) were related to both. Overall, 76 new items were added among all domains. CONCLUSIONS: Many individual and diverse items have been used to guide the reporting and conduct of rehabilitation trials. This indicates a great variability in number of items and an apparent lack of consensus on a core set of items to be used in rehabilitation. Future research should look into developing a core set of items for the rehabilitation field.

Acupuncture for experimental cerebral ischemia/reperfusion injury: a systematic review of methodology and reporting quality.

OBJECTIVES: Preclinical research is essential to the advancement of science but susceptible to insufficient reporting and methodological shortcomings, which compromise internal validity. We aimed to systematically assess the methodological and reporting quality of studies conducted on acupuncture for experimental cerebral ischemia/reperfusion injury (CIRI). METHODS: A comprehensive search in six databases was performed for animal research concerning acupuncture for CIRI. Two authors independently selected articles, extracted data, and assessed the methodological and reporting quality of identified articles using the Systematic Review Center for Laboratory Animal Experimentation (SYRCLE) tool, and Animal Research: Reporting In Vivo Experiments (ARRIVE) guideline, respectively. RESULTS: A total of 24 studies were identified. Only 1 article (4%) achieved a decent overall rating in using SYRCLE (percentage of items with "low risk" ⩾50%). Of the 22 items on the SYRCLE tool, only 8 items (37%) were rated as "low risk" of bias in more than 50% of the included studies. Of the 39 items of ARRIVE, 20 (51%) items were rated as "low risk" in more than 50% of the included studies. CONCLUSIONS: The methodological and reporting quality of included studies was generally low, which demands further improvement. These findings should inform the development of evidence-based guidelines for future preclinical research assessing the effect of acupuncture on CIRI.