Evidence-Based Complementary and Alternative Medicine / 2020 / Article / Tab 3 / Research Article
Acupuncture for the Treatment of Tension-Type Headache: An Overview of Systematic Reviews Table 3 Quality of evidence included systematic reviews with GRADE.
Author; year Outcomes Studies (participants) Limitations Inconsistency Indirectness Imprecision Publication bias Quality Deng et al. [14 ] 2018 Response AT versus SAT 12 (933) −1① 0 0 0 −1⑤ Low VAS AT versus MT 3(162) −1① 0 0 −1④ −1⑤ Very low AT versus CPM 2 (145) −1① 0 0 −1④ −1⑤ Very low AT + herbal versus MT 2 (166) −1① 0 0 −1④ −1⑤ Very low Zhang et al. [15 ] 2018 Response AT versus SAT 4 (694) −1① 0 0 0 −1⑤ Low AT versus NSAIDs 3 (168) −1① 0 0 −1④ −1⑤ Very low VAS AT versus SAT 4 (693) 0 −1② 0 0 −1⑤ Low AT versus NSAIDs 2 (102) −1① −1② 0 0 −1⑤ Very low Headache days AT versus SAT 3 (754) −1① 0 0 0 −1⑤ Low Headache index AT versus NSAIDs 3 (168) −1① −1② 0 −1④ −1⑤ Very low Lin and Xiao [16 ] 2015 Response AT versus MT 9 (598) −1① 0 0 0 −1⑤ Low VAS AT versus MT 4 (236) −1① 0 0 −1④ −1⑤ Very low Li and Luo [17 ] 2005 Response AT versus SAT (after treatment) 2 (48) −1① 0 0 −1④ −1⑤ Very low VAS AT versus SAT (after treatment) 3 (154) −1① 0 0 −1④ −1⑤ Very low AT versus SAT (within 2 months) 3 (152) −1① 0 0 −1④ −1⑤ Very low AT versus SAT (more than 2 months) 2 (103) −1① 0 0 −1④ −1⑤ Very low Linde et al. [18 ] 2016 Response AT versus SAT (within 2 months) 4 (1093) 0 0 0 0 0 High AT versus SAT (3-4 months) 4 (703) 0 0 0 0 0 High AT versus SAT (5-6 months) 4 (723) 0 0 0 0 0 High AT versus SAT (more than 6 months) 1 (30) 0 0 0 −1④ 0 Moderate Headache days AT versus SAT (within 2 months) 4 (682) 0 0 0 0 0 High AT versus SAT (3-4 months) 4 (653) 0 0 0 0 0 High AT versus SAT (5-6 months) 4 (670) 0 0 0 0 0 High Headache intensity AT versus SAT (3-4 months) 4 (655) 0 0 0 −1④ 0 Moderate AT versus SAT (5-6 months) 4 (670) 0 0 0 0 0 High Safety AT versus SAT 3 (277) 0 −1② 0 −1④ 0 Low AT versus NAT 1 (207) 0 −1② 0 −1④ 0 Low Hao et al. [19 ] 2013 Headache days AT versus SAT (after treatment) 5 (729) −① −1② 0 0 0 Low AT versus SAT (within 3 months) 3 (510) −① 0 0 −1④ 0 Low AT versus SAT (more than 3 months) 4 (684) −① 0 0 −1④ 0 Low Davis et al. [20 ] 2008 Headache days AT versus SAT (during treatment) 5 (729) −1① 0 0 0 −1⑤ Low AT versus SAT (20–25 weeks) 4 (723) −1① 0 0 0 −1⑤ Low Headache intensity AT versus SAT (during treatment) 3 (199) −1① 0 0 0 −1⑤ Low AT versus SAT (20–25 weeks) 4 (713) −1① 0 0 0 −1⑤ Low Sun and Gan [21 ] 2008 Headache intensity AT versus SAT (1 month later) 6 (762) −1① 0 0 0 0 Moderate AT versus SAT (2 months later) 4 (681) −1① 0 0 0 0 Moderate
AT: acupuncture therapy; SAT: sham acupuncture therapy; NAT: nonacupuncture therapy; CPM : Chinese patent medicine; NSAIDs: nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs; MT: medication therapy; VAS: visual analog scale; ①: the design of the experiment with a large bias in random, distributive hiding or blind; ②: the confidence interval overlaps less, the heterogeneity test P is very small, and the I2 is larger; ③: confidence interval is not narrow enough; ④: funnel graph asymmetry; ⑤: fewer studies are included and there may be greater publication bias.
