Fire-Needle Moxibustion for the Treatment of Knee Osteoarthritis: A Meta-Analysis

Table 2

Grade quality of evidence of fire-needle moxibustion treatment for KOA.

Outcome	Effect		Number of participants; (studies)	Quality of the evidence; (GRADE)
	Relative effect (95% CI)	Absolute effect (95% CI)
Recovery rate	RR 1.56; (1.34 to 1.81)	162 more per 1000; (from 98 more to 234 more)	1114; (12 studies)	⊕⊕ ⊖; Low^1,2
Recovery and marked-improvement rate	RR 1.50; (1.36 to 1.64)	250 more per 1000; (from 180 more to 319 more)	1051; (11 studies)	⊕⊕⊖ ⊖; Low^1,2
Pain		SMD 0.72 SD lower; (1.23 lower to 0.22 lower)	390; (6 studies)	⊕⊖⊖ ⊖; Very low^1,2,3

None of the trials were blinded; most of them did not mention randomization process and allocation concealment.
²Published evidence is limited due to a small number of trials, all of which are showing benefits.
³Confidence intervals with minimal overlap; the heterogeneity is significant.