The Review on the Evidence-Based Study of Acupuncture - Systematic review and Meta-analysis -

침(鍼)의 근거중심적(根據中心的) 연구동향(硏究動向)에 관(關)한 고찰(考察) - Systematic review & Meta-analysis를 중심으로 -

Objective : The purpose of this study is to work on the problems and on the direction of the study regarding the evidence-based study of Acupuncture. Methods : We reviewed the PubMed electronic database. Eight articles of systematic review without meta-analysis and six articles without meta-analysis were selected. Results : In the study of eight articles of systematic review without meta-analysis, there were two articles on effectiveness of acupuncture and one on non-effectiveness of acupuncture. Four articles were about the changes according to the quality of randomized controlled trials. Also, one article was about the side-effect of acupuncture. In the study of six articles of systematic review with meta-analysis, there were two articles on Odds Ratio, two on Relative Risk, one on number-needed-to-treat, and two on 18 predefined methodological criteria. Conclusion : As the quality of RCTs was high, positive response decreased and as the quality of RCTs was low, positive response increased. For the study of evidence-based acupuncture, it is necessary that we conduct research on well-planned placebo acupuncture, large sample size, statistical method, method of searching and assessing literature and method of meta-analysis.