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Abstract
Background: In a systematic review, tables play an important part to clearly and intensively present the essential information of the included studies. The commonly used tables are known to show ‘characteristics of included/excluded trials’, ‘risk of bias assessment’, and ‘summary of finding’. However, during the study, more tables might be generated and they would be a valuable media to record and reveal the study process. It would be meaning to explore supplementary tables to present details of the characteristics or quality-related items for specific intervention, especially for the interventions with more variability such as herbal medicine (HM) or acupuncture.
Objective: To introduce some useful supplementary tables for systematic reviews of HM or acupuncture for the usage during the literature searching, trials selection, data extraction or results presenting process.
Description: There are some tables help efficiently record the process of the review but may be hardly presented in the text, such as ‘searching strategy and result’ (Fig. 1) for each literature source, ‘screening form’ (Fig. 2), ‘contact information with the authors’ (Fig. 3), and ‘data extraction form’ (Fig. 4). Recording and presenting this additional information encourage review authors to perfect the details, and improve the quality during conducting the review. Other supplementary tables could be summarized in the Results section. ‘Components of the herbal medicine in relevant trials’ (Fig. 5) summarize the prescription with dosage and using method by studies. ‘Summary of point selection in included trials’ (Fig. 6) presents the name and frequency of the points for specific disease. ‘STRICTA checklist for included trials’ (Fig. 7), or ‘checklist of elaborated CONSORT statement for trials with herbal interventions’, helps to evaluate the reporting quality of trials. Furthermore, table of ‘adverse events’ (Fig. 8) is needed to reveal the potential side-effect of HM or acupuncture and the comparison result of occurrence rate of adverse events between groups.
Objective: To introduce some useful supplementary tables for systematic reviews of HM or acupuncture for the usage during the literature searching, trials selection, data extraction or results presenting process.
Description: There are some tables help efficiently record the process of the review but may be hardly presented in the text, such as ‘searching strategy and result’ (Fig. 1) for each literature source, ‘screening form’ (Fig. 2), ‘contact information with the authors’ (Fig. 3), and ‘data extraction form’ (Fig. 4). Recording and presenting this additional information encourage review authors to perfect the details, and improve the quality during conducting the review. Other supplementary tables could be summarized in the Results section. ‘Components of the herbal medicine in relevant trials’ (Fig. 5) summarize the prescription with dosage and using method by studies. ‘Summary of point selection in included trials’ (Fig. 6) presents the name and frequency of the points for specific disease. ‘STRICTA checklist for included trials’ (Fig. 7), or ‘checklist of elaborated CONSORT statement for trials with herbal interventions’, helps to evaluate the reporting quality of trials. Furthermore, table of ‘adverse events’ (Fig. 8) is needed to reveal the potential side-effect of HM or acupuncture and the comparison result of occurrence rate of adverse events between groups.
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