Review Article

Acupuncture and Related Therapies for Chronic Urticaria: A Critical Overview of Systematic Reviews

Table 5

The individual quality components of GRADE of included SRs.

Included studyType of StudyOutcomesDowngrading factorsOutcome
Risk of biasInconsistencyIndirectnessImprecisionPublication biasQuality of evidence

Li [24] (2009)RCT(6)seriousnonoseriousstrongly suspected⊕⊕⊕⊕
(3)seriousnononostrongly suspected⊕⊕⊕
Yan [19] (2015)RCT(1)seriousnonoseriousstrongly suspected⊕⊕⊕⊕
(8)seriousnonoseriousstrongly suspected⊕⊕⊕⊕
Yao [22] (2016)RCT(1)seriousnonoseriousstrongly suspected⊕⊕⊕⊕
Liang [41] (2016)RCT(1)seriousvery seriousnoseriousstrongly suspected⊕⊕⊕⊕
(2)seriousnononostrongly suspected⊕⊕⊕
(3)seriousnonoseriousstrongly suspected⊕⊕⊕⊕
(7)seriousvery seriousnoseriousstrongly suspected⊕⊕⊕⊕
Chen [33] (2016)RCT(4)seriousnonoseriousstrongly suspected⊕⊕⊕⊕
An [38] (2016)RCT(1)very seriousseriousnoseriousstrongly suspected⊕⊕⊕⊕
(3)very seriousseriousnoseriousstrongly suspected⊕⊕⊕⊕
Luo [39] (2016)RCT(1)very seriousseriousnoseriousstrongly suspected⊕⊕⊕⊕
(3)very seriousseriousnoseriousstrongly suspected⊕⊕⊕⊕
(4)very seriousseriousnoseriousstrongly suspected⊕⊕⊕⊕
Liu [35] (2017)RCT/CCT(4)seriousseriousnoseriousstrongly suspected⊕⊕⊕⊕
Pu [28] (2017)RCT(3)seriousnonoseriousstrongly suspected⊕⊕⊕⊕
(4)seriousnonoseriousstrongly suspected⊕⊕⊕⊕
Zhang [31] (2018)RCT(1)seriousnonoseriousstrongly suspected⊕⊕⊕⊕
(5)seriousnononostrongly suspected⊕⊕⊕
(6)seriousnonoseriousstrongly suspected⊕⊕⊕⊕
Liang [32] (2018)RCT/quasi-RCT/CCT(4)seriousnonoseriousstrongly suspected⊕⊕⊕⊕
(6)seriousnonoseriousstrongly suspected⊕⊕⊕⊕
Zhu [21] (2018)RCT(4)seriousnonoseriousstrongly suspected⊕⊕⊕⊕
(10)seriousseriousnoseriousstrongly suspected⊕⊕⊕⊕
Li [37] (2018)RCT(1)seriousseriousnoseriousstrongly suspected⊕⊕⊕⊕
(3)seriousnonoseriousstrongly suspected⊕⊕⊕⊕
(6)seriousseriousnoseriousstrongly suspected⊕⊕⊕⊕
Wei [26] (2019)RCT(3)seriousnonoseriousstrongly suspected⊕⊕⊕⊕
(4)seriousnonoseriousstrongly suspected⊕⊕⊕⊕
(6)seriousnonoseriousundetected⊕⊕⊕
Zhao [40] (2019)RCT(1)seriousnonoseriousstrongly suspected⊕⊕⊕⊕
(3)seriousnonoseriousstrongly suspected⊕⊕⊕⊕
(6)seriousnonoseriousstrongly suspected⊕⊕⊕⊕
(7)seriousnonoseriousstrongly suspected⊕⊕⊕⊕
(10)seriousseriousnoseriousstrongly suspected⊕⊕⊕⊕
Li [36] (2019)RCT(3)seriousnonoseriousstrongly suspected⊕⊕⊕⊕
(6)seriousnonoseriousstrongly suspected⊕⊕⊕⊕
Wu [29] (2019)RCT(1)seriousseriousnoseriousundetected⊕⊕⊕⊕
(3)seriousnonoseriousundetected⊕⊕⊕
Zhao [30] (2019)RCT/CCT(1)seriousnonoseriousstrongly suspected⊕⊕⊕⊕
(3)seriousnonoseriousstrongly suspected⊕⊕⊕⊕
(4)seriousnonoseriousstrongly suspected⊕⊕⊕⊕
Yao [20] (2019)RCT(1)seriousseriousnoseriousstrongly suspected⊕⊕⊕⊕
(11)seriousnonoseriousstrongly suspected⊕⊕⊕⊕
Zhao [27] (2020)RCT(1)seriousnonoseriousstrongly suspected⊕⊕⊕⊕
(3)seriousnononostrongly suspected⊕⊕⊕
(10)seriousseriousnoseriousstrongly suspected⊕⊕⊕⊕
Zhang [34] (2020)RCT/quasi-RCT(1)seriousnononoundetected⊕⊕
(3)seriousnononoundetected⊕⊕
(6)seriousnononoundetected⊕⊕
Xiao [23] (2020)RCT(1)very seriousseriousnoseriousundetected⊕⊕⊕⊕
(3)very seriousnonoseriousundetected⊕⊕⊕⊕
Ke [25] (2021)RCT(1)seriousnonoseriousundetected⊕⊕⊕⊕
(4)seriousnonoseriousundetected⊕⊕⊕⊕

Note: represents the primary outcome measure, which determines the overall quality of the article; ⊕ represents the ranking of quality as high, ⊕⊕ represents the ranking of quality as moderate, ⊕⊕⊕ represents the ranking of quality as low, and ⊕⊕⊕⊕ represents the ranking of quality as very low. (1) Risk of Bias: the included study has large biases in terms of randomization, allocation concealment, blinding, and loss of follow-up. (2) Inconsistency: the overlapping of confidence intervals of different studies is poor, and the I2 value of the combined results is large. (3) Indirectness: differences in populations, interventions, and outcomes. (4) Imprecision: the sample size of the included studies was too small and the confidence interval was wide. (5) Publication bias: funnel diagram shows asymmetry, gray literature was not retrieved and the search database is incomplete.Outcomes: (1) total efficiency: according to the severity of clinical symptoms using 4 scores; the total score is the sum of the individual scores. Symptom Score Reducing Index (SSRI) = (total score before treatment-total score after treatment)/total score before treatment×100%; (2) adverse reaction rate; (3) recurrence rate; (4) clinical efficacy rate: the clinical complete recovery is considered to be effective, others are invalid; (5) improvement rate; (6) curing rate; (7) IgE levels; (8) the Dermatology Quality Life Index (DLQI); (9) quality of life score (QoL); (10) total improvement of clinical signs and symptoms; (11) disease activity control.