Martin 1981a.

Methods	Randomized trial of acupuncture (continuous stimulation) Country: New Zealand Recruitment: Community volunteers
Participants	126 smokers (criteria not specified)
Interventions	a) indwelling needles to 'effective' auricular points (lung and hunger) for 3 weeks b) indwelling needles to 'ineffective' auricular points (elbow and eye) Other groups with needling in the ankle or with cut‐off studs were not conducted in parallel with the above and have been excluded from the review
Outcomes	Abstinence and reduction in cigarette consumption at 3 weeks, 3 months and 6 months Validation: nil
Notes
Risk of bias
Bias	Authors' judgement	Support for judgement
Random sequence generation (selection bias)	Unclear risk	Study run in three phases, randomisation method not described
Allocation concealment (selection bias)	Unclear risk	No information
Blinding (performance bias and detection bias) All outcomes	Low risk	Described as single blind, and the interventions were appropriate
Incomplete outcome data (attrition bias) All outcomes	Unclear risk	Dropout rate 22%, 31% overall
Other bias	Low risk	Groups similar in sex, age and smoking habits