Effectiveness and Safety of Acupuncture for Migraine: An Overview of Systematic Reviews

Table 6

Evidence quality of included studies.

Author (date)	Interventions vs comparisons	Outcomes (number of studies)	Risk of bias	Inconsistency	Indirection	Imprecision	Publication bias	Quality of evidence
Gao (2011)	Acupuncture vs sham acupuncture	Effective rate at the end of treatment (8)	0	0	0	−1^①	0	Moderate
		Effective rate at the end of follow-up (4)	0	−1^②	0	−1^①	0	Low
Zheng (2012)	Acupuncture vs western medicine	Effective rate (8)	0	−1^②	0	0	0	Low
	Acupuncture vs Chinese medicine therapy	Effective rate (3)	0	0	0	−1^①	−1^③	Low
	Acupuncture vs sham acupuncture	Effective rate (3)	0	0	0	−1^①	−1^③	Low
Chen (2014)	Acupuncture vs western medicine	Effective rate (13)	0	0	0	0	0	High
Yang (2014)	Acupuncture vs western medicine	Short-term effective rate (9)	0	−1^②	0	0	0	Low
		Long-term effective rate (4)	0	−1^②	0	—1^①	0	Very low
Zhao (2014)	Acupuncture vs Western medicine	Effective rate (11)	0	0	0	0	0	High
Dai (2014)	Acupuncture vs western medicine	Effective rate (2)	0	−1^②	0	−1^①	−1^③	Very low
Pu (2016)	Acupuncture vs western medicine	Effective rate after 3–4 months follow-up (4)	0	−1^②	0	−1^①	−1^③	Very low
		Effective rate after 5–6 months follow-up (2)	0	0	0	−1^①	−1^③	Low
Song (2016)	Acupuncture vs western medicine	Short-term effective rate (15)	0	0	0	0	0	High
		Long-term effective rate (7)	0	0	0	0	0	High
		Long-term headache times (2)	0	−1^②	0	0	−1^③	Low
Xian (2016)	Acupuncture vs sham acupuncture	Effective rate at 1–2 months follow-up (5)	0	0	0	−1^①	0	Moderate
		Effective rate at 3–4 months follow-up (6)	0	0	0	−1^①	0	Moderate
		Effective rate at 5–6 months follow-up (5)	0	−1^②	0	−1^①	0	Low
		Effective rate of more than 6 months follow-up (2)	0	−1^②	0	0	−1^③	Low
	Acupuncture vs western medicine	Effective rate at 1–2 months follow-up (4)	0	−1^②	0	0	−1^③	Low
		Effective rate at 3–4 months follow-up (2)	0	−1^②	0	0	−1^③	Very low
		Effective rate at 5–6 months follow-up (5)	0	−1^②	0	−1^①	−1^③	Very low
		Effective rate of 0–1 months follow-up (2)	0	−1^②	0	−1^①	−1^③	Very low
Zhao (2016)	Acupuncture vs western medicine	Effective rate (8)	0	−1^②	0	0	0	Moderate
Xu (2018)	Acupuncture vs western medicine	Effective rate (6)	0	0	0	−1^①	0	Moderate

^①The optimal information size was not enough. ^②I² value of the combined results was large, and/or confidence intervals overlapped difference. ^③Suspicion of publishing bias.