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Table 2 GRADE evidence profile for assessment of evidence quality in GRADE system

From: Meta-analysis of acupuncture for relieving non-organic dyspeptic symptoms suggestive of diabetic gastroparesis

Quality assessment

No of patients

Effect

Quality

Importance

No of studies

Design

Risk of bias

Inconsistency

Indirectness

Imprecision

Other considerations

Acupuncture

Control

Relative (95% CI)

Absolute

Response rate to acupuncture

8

Randomised trial

Serious

No serious inconsistency

No serious indirectness

No serious imprecision

Reporting bias

272/292 (93.2%)

227/293 (77.5%)

RR 1.2 (1.12 to 1.29)

155 more per 1000 (from 93 more to 225 more)

⊕⊕ΟΟ LOW

CRITICAL

Improvement of total scores of gastroparesis symptoms by acupuncture

6a

Randomised trial

Serious

No serious inconsistencyb

No serious indirectness

No serious imprecision

Reporting bias

221

221

-

SMD 0.97 lower (1.27 to 0.68 lower)

⊕⊕ΟΟ LOW

CRITICAL

Improvement of solid gastric emptying

6c

Randomised trial

Serious

Seriousd

No serious indirectness

No serious imprecision

Reporting bias

195

195

-

SMD 0.37 lower (0.79 lower to 0.05 higher)

⊕ΟΟΟ Very LOW

CRITICAL

  1. Key: a, two trials [24, 32] were excluded because one study [32] used a different scale to evaluate epigastric fullness syndromes and another study [24] used sham-acupuncture as control which was considered not be suitable to combine with other results. b, no significant heterogeneity across these six studies was observed (SMD, I 2 = 55%, df = 5, χ2 = 10.99, P = 0.05). c, six studies [19, 25, 26, 30–32] were included and one trial [24] was excluded because this study used scintigraphy to determine gastric emptying which was different from the others. d, there were significant heterogeneity (SMD, I 2 = 77%, df = 5, χ2 = 21.62, P = 0.0006) among these six trials.