Suboptimal reporting of randomized controlled trials on non-pharmacological therapies in Chinese medicine

Abstract

With the successive release of the CONSORT extensions for acupuncture, moxibustion, cupping, and Tuina/massage, this review aims to assess the reporting characteristics and quality of randomized controlled trials (RCTs) based on these specific guidelines. A comprehensive review was conducted by searching multiple databases, including Embase, Ovid MEDLINE(R), All EBM Reviews, AMED, CNKI, VIP Chinese Medical Journal Database, and Wanfang Data, for publications from January 1 to December 31, 2022. Two reviewers independently evaluated the eligibility of the records, extracted predetermined information, and assessed the reporting based on the STRICTA, STRICTOM, STRICTOC, and STRICTOTM checklists. Among the included 387 studies (acupuncture, 213; Tuina/massage, 85; moxibustion, 73; cupping, 16), the overall reporting compliance averaged 56.0%, with acupuncture leading at 62.6%, followed by cupping (60.2%), moxibustion (53.1%), and Tuina/massage (47.9%). About half of the evaluated items showed poor reporting (compliance rate < 65%). Notably, international journals demonstrated significantly higher reporting quality than Chinese journals (P < 0.05). Although acupuncture trials had relatively higher compliance rates, deficiencies persist in reporting non-pharmacological therapies of Chinese medicine, particularly in areas like treatment environment details and provider background information.

Keywords

CONSORT / Chinese medicine / reporting guideline / STRICTA / STRICTOM / STRICTOC / STRICTOTM

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Acknowledgements

The authors thank all the financial supports from Chinese Medicine Development Fund (Nos. 20B2/027A and 23B2-027A_R1), Hong Kong; Center for Evidence Based Traditional Chinese Medicine (CCEBTM, No. 2020YJSZX-5); National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 81704198); Donation Funding of Vincent V.C. Woo Chinese Medicine Clinical Research Institute; and Health@InnoHK Initiative Fund of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Government (No. ITC RC/IHK/4/7). The funders had no role in the design of study, in the collection, analysis, and interpretation of data, nor in the writing of the manuscript.

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Supplementary materials are available in the online version of this article at https://doi.org/10.1007/s11684-024-1084-4 and are accessible for authorized users.

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Conflicts of interest Xuan Zhang, Han Li, Hanzhi Tan, Nana Wang, Chung Wah Cheng, Juan Wang, Dongni Shi, Lin Zhang, Yumeng Liu, Yao Wang, Shufeng Luo, Yaxin Lin, Lihan Hu, Xuanqi Zhang, Ji Li, Fei Han, Ping Wang, Aiping Lyu, and Zhaoxiang Bian declare that they have no conflict of interest.

This article does not contain any studies with human or animal subjects.

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