Table 3.
Pairwise meta-analysis of improvement of MMSE.
| Comparison | Number | WMD (95% CI) | I 2 | p | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| EA + CM | CM | 2 | 5.56 (2.10, 9.03)∗ | 72.4% | 0.057 |
| MA + CM | CM | 5 | 2.43 (0.78, 4.07)∗ | 93.8% | <0.00001 |
| SA + CM | CM | 4 | 2.68 (–1.10, 6.46) | 90.5% | <0.00001 |
| WA + CM | CM | 1 | 1.63 (–0.38, 3.64) | — | — |
| FA + CM | CM | 1 | 4.14 (3.10, 5.18)∗ | — | — |
| EA | CM | 5 | 1.52 (–0.14, 3.18) | 85.2% | <0.00001 |
| MA | CM | 9 | 0.72 (-0.46, 1.90) | 89.3% | <0.00001 |
| SA | CM | 3 | 3.88 (–2.89, 10.65) | 95.5% | <0.00001 |
| WA | MA | 2 | 0.51 (0.02, 1.00)∗ | 0% | 0.817 |
| SA + CM | SA | 1 | 0.20 (–3.00, 3.40) | — | — |
Notes. ∗ Significant difference, MA: manual acupuncture, EA: electroacupuncture, FA: fire acupuncture, WA: warm acupuncture, SA: scalp acupuncture, CM: conventional medicine, and MMSE: the Mini-Mental State Examination.