Review Article

Moxibustion for the Correction of Nonvertex Presentation: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Randomized Controlled Trials

Table 3

Risk of bias of included RCTs.

StudyRandom sequence generationAllocation concealmentBlinding of participants and personnelBlinding of outcome assessmentIncomplete outcome dataSelective reportingOther bias

Yang et al. [16]Computer generatedSealed envelopesNot stated Analyst was blinded7 subjects from treatment group and 10 subjects from control group withdrew from the trialSPUU IID

Cardini and Weixin [17]Computer generatedSealed envelopesNeither participants nor practitioner was blinded Not statedComplete followup of all subjectsSPUP NIR;
SAF

Cardini et al. [18]Computer generatedSealed envelopesNeither participants nor practitioner was blinded Assessor was blinded1 subject in control group was lost to followup; 14 subjects in intervention group discontinued treatmentSPUP TIIA

Do et al. [19]Computer generatedSealed envelopesNot statedAnalyst was blinded1 subject in control group was lost to followup, but less than 10%Study protocol available NIR;
SAF

Guittier et al. [20]Computer generatedSealed envelopesNot statedNot statedComplete followup of all subjectsSPUP NIR;
SAF

Vas et al. [21]Computer generatedSealed envelopesParticipants in true and sham moxibustion groups were blinded Analyst was blindedComplete followup of all subjectsStudy protocol availableNIR;
SAF

Yang [22]Table of random numbersNot statedNot statedNot statedFollowup of all subjects was not reportedSPUUIID

SPUU: study protocol unavailable; unable to determine whether all outcomes were prespecified, SPUP: study protocol unavailable, but published report includes all expected outcomes, IID: insufficient information to determine whether the other bias is present, NIR: no imbalances at randomization, SAF: study appears free of other sources of bias, TIIA: trial was interrupted when interim analysis revealed poor compliance and a high number of treatment interruptions.