Evidence-Based Evaluation Of Clinical Research Of Auricular Acupressure

Objective Through analyzing and evaluating the current literature characteristics and the trend of auricular acupressure,the methodological quality and reporting quality of randomized controlled trials of auricular acupressure therapy and the methodological quality and reporting quality of systematic review and meta-analysis of auricular acupressure therapy to understand the current situation and development trend of auricular acupressure and promote the production of high-quality evidence.Besides,to provide evidence-based basis for its clinical promotion and application.Methods 1.Bibliometric analysis: Cite Space was used to analyze the research status and trend of auricular acupressure;2.Evaluation of the methodological quality and reporting quality of randomized controlled trials: To include randomized controlled trials of auricular acupressure,using CONSORT statement to evaluate the reporting quality of included studies and the Cochrane collaboration’s tool for assessing risk of bias to evaluate the methodological quality of included studies;3.Overview: Using AMSTAR2 to evaluate the methodological quality of systematic review and meta-analysis of auricular acupressure therapy and PRIAMA to evaluate the reporting quality of systematic review and meta-analysis of auricular acupressure therapy.Results 1.Bibliometric analysis: A total of 3704 articles were included,and the overall number of publications showed an upward trend.The participants were mainly from hospitals and covered people of all ages.Insomnia is the dominant disease of auricular acupressure.Intervention measures include auricular acupressure alone and auricular acupressure combine with other therapies,and outcomes mainly involve laboratory indicators,clinical symptom improvement,quality of life and safety evaluation.The design types of included studies were diverse,most of which are case series studies,followed by randomized controller trials.The collaborative knowledge map of authors in China shows that Yuan Yadong’s team,Zhang Min’s team and Xu Yanhua’s team are closely related,while Yeh CH’s team and Garry C’s team are closely related abroad.However,the collaboration knowledge map of institutions/countries shows that there is less cooperation between institutions and countries.The knowledge map of keywords co-occurrence clustering shows that 14 clusters are formed in China and 6 clusters in foreign countries.In recent 5 years,the burst words are as follows:effect,perimenopausal period,anxiety,postpartum lactation,traditional Chinese medicine characteristic nursing,cesarean section.2.Evaluation of the methodological quality and reporting quality of randomized controlled trials: 94 literature were included.The included studies were associated with higher risk of bias in randomized sequence generation,randomized allocation concealment,blinding,and selective outcome reporting.The report of sample size calculation,random methods,allocation concealment,blinding,statistical analysis method,the participants assessment process,follow-up,intentional analysis,evaluation of conclusion and registration of research protocol are insufficient,the report rate are respectively 11.70%,3.19%,13.83%,5.32%,0%,7.45%,23.40%,2.13%,0%,0%.3.Overview: A total of 9 studies were included.The studied diseases involved insomnia,constipation,obesity,hypertension,postpartum lactation,pain,and myopia.For the results of AMSTAR2 assessment,the methodological quality of included studies were critically low.Item2(11.11%),item7(0%),item10(0%),item11(33.33%),and item16(44.44%)were not up to standard.The results of PRISMA assessment showed that all studies had good quality of reporting,however,there were defects in item5(11.11%),item16(33.33%),item23(33.33%),and item27(33.33%).Conclusion The overall trend of clinical researches of auricular acupressure is growing,the level of evidence of evidence-based medicine is constantly improving and gradually tend to be more scientific and reasonable.At present,the research hotspot of auricular acupressure lies in the clinical observation of insomnia,pain,cardiovascular disease,stroke,constipation and obesity,the research trend has evolved to obstetrics and gynecology,mental health field.However,there is less cooperation between institutions and countries.There are problems of low methodological quality and inadequate reporting in randomized controlled trials and systematic review/meta-analysis of auricular acupressure.In the future,clinical researchers should be cautions in using evidence and multi-center,large-sample clinical trails should be carried out.