Systematic reviews and meta-analyses of traditional Chinese medicine must search Chinese databases to reduce language bias

Ref ID 110
First Author X.-Y. Wu
Journal EVIDENCE-BASED COMPLEMENTARY AND ALTERNATIVE MEDICINE
Year Of Publishing 2013
URL https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/24223063/
Keywords Cochrane
Author
Complimentary & Alternative
Language
Problem(s) Language restriction
Number of systematic reviews included 80
Summary of Findings Of the 80 systematic reviews of traditional Chinese medicine trials randomly selected from the Cochrane database of systematic reviews, 43 (54%) searched Chinese databases and 37 (46%) did not. 15 (35%) of systematic reviews that searched Chinese databases and 12 (32%) of systematic reviews that did not search Chinese databases drew a conclusion that tended to support the efficacy of traditional Chinese medicine. In addition, 41 of the 43 systematic reviews (95%) that searched Chinese databases had included Chinese co-authors, while only 4 (11%) of the 37 systematic reviews that did not search Chinese databases had Chinese co-authors.
Did the article find that the problem(s) led to qualitative changes in interpretation of the results? Not Applicable
Are the methods of the article described in enough detail to replicate the study? Yes