Table 3 Summaries of the flaws and solutions for improving the study quality of systematic review in traditional medicine
Problems | Flaws caused by the problems | Solutions |
|---|---|---|
Systematic problems | ||
 Subjective assessments of symptoms | High heterogeneity | Objectification of the assessments of symptoms |
 Individual treatments. | Difficult to practice blinding and allocation concealment | |
Non-systematic problems | ||
 Lack of reporting of adverse events | Lower the reliability of the traditional medicine | Improving the spontaneous reporting system of adverse event; education and training the medical stuff. |
 Lack of follow -up | Lack of the data of long-term efficacy, lower the evidence of efficacy regarding a therapy of traditional medicine. | Improve the experimental design, adding the contents of follow-up. |
Other problems | ||
 Placebo effects | Exaggeration of the efficacy | Adoption of the experimental design using T + C vs. C + P |
 Small sample size | Lower the reliability of the traditional medicine | Improve the experimental design guided by a statistician. |