| Methods |
Design: three group parallel trial
Purpose: examine the effect of acupressure on nausea associated with pregnancy |
| Participants |
Patients: pregnant women with nausea
Baseline comparability: yes for baseline nausea |
| Interventions |
Placebo: acupressure on a neutral point (not P6)
Untreated: no acupressure
Experimental: acupressure on the point P6
(Co‐intervention: antiemetic medication, dietary and activity recommendations. The acupressure group used less antiemetic medication than the two other groups). |
| Outcomes |
Nausea (Rhodes inventory of nausea and vomiting)
Vomiting |
| Notes |
|
| Risk of bias |
| Bias |
Authors' judgement |
Support for judgement |
| Adequate sequence generation? |
Unclear risk |
'group assignments were computer generated' |
| Allocation concealment? |
Low risk |
'numbered sealed envelopes' |
| Blinding?
Treatment provider |
High risk |
Not described as double‐blind (placebo/acupressure) |
| Blinding?
Outcome assessor |
Unclear risk |
Not relevant as patient reported outcome |
| Incomplete outcome data addressed?
All outcomes |
Low risk |
Drop‐out < 15% |
| Free of selective reporting? |
Unclear risk |
No protocol available |
| Free of other bias? |
Low risk |
|
| No signs of variance inequality or skewness? |
High risk |
Either variance inequality (F‐test statistically significant) or skewness (1.64 standard deviations exceeds the mean) |
| Trial size > 49? |
Low risk |
N = 107 |
| Clearly concealed allocation + trial size > 49 + drop‐out max 15% |
Low risk |
All three categories fulfilled |
