Table 4.
Methodological quality of complementary and traditional medicine RCTs in Korea according to Cochrane tool for assessing risk of bias n (%)*.
| Risk of bias | Natural products | Mind and body practices | Total (n = 360) | ||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Herbal medicine (n = 30) | Ginseng therapy (n = 19) | Vitamin diet-based therapy (n = 5) | Acupuncture (n = 144) | Pharmacoacupuncture (n = 70) | Qigong magnet (n = 31) |
Tuina technique (n = 17) | Moxibustion therapy (n = 12) | Massage (n = 10) | Taping technique (n = 7) | Cupping therapy (n = 5) | Meditation tai-chi yoga aroma therapy (n = 10) |
||
| (1) Random sequence generation | 18 (60.0) | 11 (57.9) | 1 (20.0) | 65 (45.1) | 34 (48.6) | 2 (6.5) | 5 (29.4) | 4 (33.3) | 3 (30.0) | 3 (42.9) | 1 (20.0) | 3 (30.0) | 150 (41.7) |
| (2) Allocation concealment | 3 (10.0) | 7 (36.8) | 0 | 17 (11.8) | 3 (4.3) | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 30 (8.3) |
| (3) Blinding of participants and personnel | |||||||||||||
| Patients | 23 (76.7) | 17 (89.5) | 3 (60.0) | 47 (32.6) | 30 (42.9) | 4 (12.9) | 0 | 1 (8.3) | 1 (10.0) | 1 (14.3) | 0 | 0 | 123 (34.2) |
| Doctor | 22 (73.3) | 16 (84.2) | 3 (60.0) | 18 (25.7) | 59 (16.4) | ||||||||
| (4) Blinding of outcome assessment | 22 (73.3) | 14 (73.7) | 3 (60.0) | 27 (18.8) | 8 (11.4) | 3 (9.7) | 0 | 0 | 2 (20.0) | 1 (14.3) | 1 (20.0) | 0 | 81 (22.5) |
| (5) Incomplete outcome data | 27 (90.0) | 15 (78.9) | 5 (100.0) | 42 (29.2) | 30 (42.9) | 9 (29.0) | 2 (11.8) | 9 (75.0) | 5 (50.0) | 7 (100.0) | 3 (60.0) | 6 (60.0) | 160 (44.4) |
| (6) Selective reporting | 2 (6.7) | 3 (15.8) | 0 | 3 (2.1) | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 8 (2.2) |
*Low risk of bias, n (%).