Table 3.

Risk of bias of included RCTs.

Study	Random sequence generation	Allocation concealment	Blinding of participants and personnel	Blinding of outcome assessment	Incomplete outcome data	Selective reporting	Other bias
Yang et al. [16]	Computer generated	Sealed envelopes	Not stated	Analyst was blinded	7 subjects from treatment group and 10 subjects from control group withdrew from the trial	SPUU	IID
Cardini and Weixin [17]	Computer generated	Sealed envelopes	Neither participants nor practitioner was blinded	Not stated	Complete followup of all subjects	SPUP	NIR; SAF
Cardini et al. [18]	Computer generated	Sealed envelopes	Neither participants nor practitioner was blinded	Assessor was blinded	1 subject in control group was lost to followup; 14 subjects in intervention group discontinued treatment	SPUP	TIIA
Do et al. [19]	Computer generated	Sealed envelopes	Not stated	Analyst was blinded	1 subject in control group was lost to followup, but less than 10%	Study protocol available	NIR; SAF
Guittier et al. [20]	Computer generated	Sealed envelopes	Not stated	Not stated	Complete followup of all subjects	SPUP	NIR; SAF
Vas et al. [21]	Computer generated	Sealed envelopes	Participants in true and sham moxibustion groups were blinded	Analyst was blinded	Complete followup of all subjects	Study protocol available	NIR; SAF
Yang [22]	Table of random numbers	Not stated	Not stated	Not stated	Followup of all subjects was not reported	SPUU	IID

SPUU: study protocol unavailable; unable to determine whether all outcomes were prespecified, SPUP: study protocol unavailable, but published report includes all expected outcomes, IID: insufficient information to determine whether the other bias is present, NIR: no imbalances at randomization, SAF: study appears free of other sources of bias, TIIA: trial was interrupted when interim analysis revealed poor compliance and a high number of treatment interruptions.