| Methods |
Design: three group parallel trial
Purpose: study the effect of acupressure on chemo‐therapy induced nausea |
| Participants |
Patients: cancer patients receiving chemotherapy
Baseline comparability: yes |
| Interventions |
Placebo: needling in S13 point theoretically inert for nausea
Untreated: no needling
Experimental: needling in P6
(Co‐intervention: antiemetic drugs) |
| Outcomes |
Nausea intensity (NRS)
Rhodes Index of Nausea (3 items)
Rhodes index of nausea and vomiting (1 item)
Functional status (NRS)
State‐Trait Anxiety Inventory |
| Notes |
Data provided from authors: mean nausea NRS (0 to 10) evening after getting chemotherapy. |
| Risk of bias |
| Bias |
Authors' judgement |
Support for judgement |
| Adequate sequence generation? |
Unclear risk |
NS |
| Allocation concealment? |
Unclear risk |
NS |
| Blinding?
Treatment provider |
Low risk |
'The researchers endeavoured to keep the research assistant masked as to the active point' |
| 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? |
High risk |
No protocol available. Data provided from authors |
| 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 = 100 |
| Clearly concealed allocation + trial size > 49 + drop‐out max 15% |
High risk |
Allocation not clearly concealed |
