Table 2.
Assessing Risk of Bias of Included Trials
| Lead author, year & ref. # | Sequence generation | Allocation concealment | Blinding of participants, personnel, and outcome assessors | Incomplete outcome data | Selective outcome reporting | Other sources of bias | Risk of bias |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Assefi NP 200516 | Computer-generated, blocked random-allocation sequence with a block size of 4 | Unclear | Blinded to patients | No | No | No | Low risk of bias |
| Brattberg G 199917 | Unclear | Unclear | Not mentioned | No | No | No | Unclear risk of bias |
| Cao JY 200318] | Unclear | Unclear | Unclear | No | No | No | Unclear risk of bias |
| Deluze C 199219 | Electronic numbers generator | Closed envelopes | Blinded to patients and outcome assessors | No | No | No | Low risk of bias |
| Fu HW 200620 | Unclear | Unclear | Unclear | No | No | No | Unclear risk of bias |
| Fu XY 2004a | Table of random numbers | Unclear | Blinded to outcome assessors | No | No | No | Low risk of bias |
| Gao GM 200721 | Table of random numbers | Unclear | Unclear | No | No | No | Unclear risk of bias |
| Guo XJ 200322 | Unclear | Unclear | Unclear | No | No | No | Unclear risk of bias |
| Guo Y 200523 | Unclear | Unclear | Unclear | No | No | No | Unclear risk of bias |
| Guo Y 2005b | Unclear | Unclear | Unclear | No | No | No | Unclear risk of bias |
| Harris RE 200524 | Computer-generated random numbers in a four-block design | Closed envelope | Blinded to patients and outcome assessors | No | No | No | Low risk of bias |
| Jiang F 200425 | Draw cast | Unclear | unclear | Yes (SDfinal) | No | No | Unclear risk of bias |
| Lautenschlage 198926 | Unclear | Unclear | Blinded to patients | Yes (SD) | No | No | Unclear risk of bias |
| Li AL 200427 | Unclear | Unclear | Unclear | No | No | No | Unclear risk of bias |
| Li CD 200628 | Table of random number | Unclear | Blinded to outcome assessors | No | No | No | Low risk of bias |
| Li J 200529 | Unclear | Unclear | Unclear | Yes (VAS scores) | No | No | Unclear risk of bias |
| Liu JZ 200230 | Unclear | Unclear | Unclear | Yes (continuous data) | No | No | Unclear risk of bias |
| Liu Q 200231 | Unclear | Unclear | Unclear | No | No | No | Unclear risk of bias |
| Martin DP 200632 | In blocks of 4 | Unclear | Blinded to patients and outcome assessors | No | No | No | Low risk of bias |
| Sprott H 199833 | Unclear | Unclear | Blinded to outcome assessors | Yes (SD of number of tender points) | No | No | Unclear risk of bias |
| Targino RA 200834 | Computer-generated | Unclear | Blinded to patients and outcome assessors | No | No | No | Low risk of bias |
| Wang CM 200835 | Draw cast | Unclear | Unclear | No | No | No | Unclear risk of bias |
| Yang HB 200836 | Unclear | unclear | Unclear | No | No | No | Unclear risk of bias |
| Yang TG 200737 | Table of random number | unclear | Unclear | No | No | No | Unclear risk of bias |
| Zhang YG 200138 | Unclear | Unclear | Unclear | No | No | No | Unclear risk of bias |
a
Fu XY, Li CD. Clinical randomized controlled trial on combination of acupuncture, cupping and medicine for treatment of fibromyalgia syndrome [dissertation for Master's degree from Chengdu University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Chengdu, China]. 2004.
b
Guo Y, Sun YZ. Clinical observation of therapeutic effect of penetration needling at the back in treating with fibromyalgia syndrome [dissertation for Master's degree from Heilongjiang University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Heilongjiang, China]. 2005.
SDfinal, standard deviation at the end of the treatment SD, standard deviation; VAS, visual analogue score SD, standard deviation.