How do systematic reviews of acupuncture for pain relief incorporate risk of bias assessments into the synthesis? A methodological study

Ref ID 174
First Author X. Q. Li
Journal ACUPUNCTURE IN MEDICINE
Year Of Publishing 2016
URL https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1136/acupmed-2015-010876
Keywords • Risk of bias
• Complementary & Alternative
Problem(s) • Meta-analyses and forest plots presented without considering risk of bias / quality
• Risk of bias not incorporated into conclusions of review
Article Type Empirical
Article Subtype Cross-sectional survey/Methodological systematic review
First Author Country China
Aim To assess how critical appraisals of risk of bias informs the synthesis of evidence in systematic reviews of acupuncture for pain relief published up to 2014.
Level of Investigation Descriptive
Summary of Findings Most (85/91; 93%) systematic reviews of acupuncture for pain relief published up to 2014 conducted some form of risk of bias assessment, but nearly half of them (48/95; 57%) failed to incorporate the risk of bias assessment into the synthesis.
Number of systematic reviews included 91
Number of eligible systematic reviews assessed 204
Treatment impacted No
Treatment impacted description
Interpretation impacted Not Applicable
Interpretation impacted description