Methodological Review of Acupuncture for Chronic Atrophic Gastritis, 55 RCTs

A systematic review of 55 randomized controlled trials (RCTs) on acupuncture for chronic atrophic gastritis (CAG) published over the past 25 years, involving 5,311 patients. The study, authored by Han Zhang and available on figshare, analyzes heterogeneity in outcome measures and methodological quality. It was last updated in June 2026.

Use Cases

• Analyzing methodological quality and risk of bias in acupuncture RCTs based on the reported assessment using the Cochrane tool.
• Identifying heterogeneity in outcome measures for CAG based on the reported 57 different indicators.
• Informing the development of a core outcome set (COS) for acupuncture trials based on the review's findings on inconsistent reporting.
• Studying reporting gaps in clinical trials based on the noted lack of focus on patient-reported outcomes and long-term prognosis.

Strengths

• Systematic review of 55 RCTs involving 5,311 patients, providing a defined scope.
• Detailed methodological analysis, including specific statistics like 83.6% of studies using low-risk randomization.
• Clear identification of reporting gaps, such as only 3.6% implementing allocation concealment.

Limitations

• The dataset is a 25.2 KB document; the underlying trial data is not provided, limiting direct analysis.
• Row count and column-level documentation for any extracted data are unknown.
• The review focuses on a specific 25-year period and condition, which may limit generalizability.

Provenance

Source

figshare, author Han Zhang.

Collection Method

Systematic review and meta-analysis of RCTs identified from major Chinese and English databases.

Time Range

RCTs published over the past 25 years (relative to the study's publication date).

Freshness

Last updated 2026-06-01 04:18:12