The preferences and values of patients treated with acupuncture for cancer pain:a qualitative systematic review

Background:Understanding values and preferences in the context of personal,physical,emotional,relational,and social factors is important in optimizing cancer patient counselling,facilitating treatment decision-making,and improving guideline recommendations in treating cancer pain patients.Objective:To systematically review the available evidence regarding the values,preferences,and expectations of acupuncture for patients with cancer pain.Methods:A systematic review following the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses(PRISMA)statement was conducted.Eight databases were searched without time limits for eligible studies up to April 26,2021.Reference lists of included articles were also searched manually and authors were contacted to inquire about other relevant papers.The quality of the studies was appraised using the Critical Appraisal Skill Program Qualitative Appraisal Checklist(CASP)for studies.This research was registered on PROSPERO with number CRD42020213396.Results:A total of eight studies published in period from 2002 to 2020 were identified from 8 studies involving 2,835 patients.The number of participants in each study ranged from 76 to 706.The quality of the eight included studies was considered high as judged by the CASP tool.Safety is the main factor influencing patients'willingness and preference to accept acupuncture treatment.Human race,education,gender,and knowledge of acupuncture were potentially correlated with patients'preferences.Patients with moderate to severe pain were more likely to use acupuncture than those with mild pain.Conclusion:The preferences and values of patients with cancer pain to receive acupuncture treatment are mainly related to the safety of acupuncture,the degree of cancer pain and demographic characteristics.It is hoped that future high-quality studies could further confirm our conclusions.

Reporting quality of systematic review protocols of interventions for knee osteoarthritis:a systematic review protocol

Background:Knee osteoarthritis is a chronic degenerative disease responsible for a substantial disease burden worldwide.Multiple protocols of systematic reviews of interventions for knee osteoarthritis have been published,but their reporting quality remains unknown,with potential influencing factors failing to be explored.Therefore,the present systematic review was designed to fill those gaps in our knowledge.Methods:The protocols of systematic reviews of interventions for knee osteoarthritis will be searched systematically through the PubMed and Embase online databases from inception to May 2021.Two reviewers will independently screen the literature and abstract data,and cross-check the results.The reporting quality of protocols included in the review will be evaluated using the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Review and Meta-analysis Protocols checklist,and potential influencing factors(e.g.,methodologist involvement and number of authors)for reporting quality will be explored using univariable and multivariable linear regression methods.The general information of the protocols included in the review will be reported qualitatively.Excel 2019 and Stata 13.0 software will be used to manage and analyze the data.P-values<0.05 will be considered statistically significant.Results:The results of this methodological systematic review will be submitted to a peer-reviewed journal for publication.Conclusion:The systematic review will provide evidence of the reporting quality of protocols of systematic reviews of interventions for knee osteoarthritis.The evidence from the present review will be available to inform the reporting of future protocols.

Vaccine Research in COVID-19: A Living Scoping Review Protocol

Objective:This scoping review will summarize COVID-19 vaccine research activities and describe the extent,range,and nature of evidence in the research of COVID-19 vaccines.Methods:Following Arksey and O’Malley’s framework and the methodological guidance of Joanna Briggs Institute(JBI),we propose a scoping review to summarize the extent,range,and na-ture of evidence in research related to COVID-19 vaccines.Based on research questions developed by us,a comprehensive search will be performed using the PubMed,Cochrane Library,Embase,Web of Science,CNKI,CBM,VIP,and WanFang databases by two independent reviewers.According to our predefined inclusion criteria,pairs of reviewers will independently assess theeligibility of the identified studies from the databases.Following literature selection,pairs of reviewers will extract relevant information related to our research questions.Subsequently,methodological quality and reporting quality of key evidence types(i.e.,random-ized controlled trials,systematic reviews,and meta-analyses)will be evaluated using commonly used tools,if possible.Qualitative synthesis and descriptive statistics will be used to summarize and present the results.In addition,new or updated meta-analysis will be conducted to pool the available data in included primary studies where possible.To track the trends in COVID-19 vaccine research,we plan to update our results approximately every 2-3 months.For preparing this scoping review protocol,we referred to the PRISMA-P checklist,and for reporting the following full texts,we will be following PRISMA-ScR guidelines.Conclusion:We believe that the results of this scoping review on COVID-19 vaccine will contribute to providing foundational knowledge and will have significant value in the research and practice concerning COVID-19 vaccines.The findings will also allow us to identify research gaps on this topic and also help us guide future research on COVID-19 vaccines.

Effectiveness of five elements music therapy on negative emotions of tumor patients:a systematic review and grading recommendations(GRADE)system

Background:Many original studies have shown that traditional Chinese five-element therapy(FEM-therapy)can effectively relieve anxiety,depression and quality of life.However,one published systematic review refuted this conclusion.To further clarify the efficacy of FEM therapy in relieving negative emotion among cancer patients and to assess the reliability of the evidence,this systematic review and meta-analysis was performed.Methods:We searched for randomized controlled trials(RCTs)comparing FEM-therapy versus standard care for cancer patients,six databases(CBM,PubMed,Cochrane Library,Web of Science,CNKI,and WanFang),two clinical trial registries and one gray literature database were searched from inception to October 31,2022.Two investigators independently screened literature,extracted data,and assessed risk of bias according to the Cochrane Handbook Version 6.1.0.The RevMan 5.3 software was used to perform the meta-analysis.Overall quality of evidence was rated using GRADE(Grading of Recommendations,Assessment,Development and Evaluation).Results:25 RCTs involving 1990 patients were finally included.Two of which had high risk bias,the remaining 23 were rated as unclear risk bias.Compared with other treatments,FEM-therapy combined with conventional nursing can significantly relieve anxiety(MD=-10.33,95%CI:[-13.77,-6.88],P<0.05;very low certainty)and depression(SMD=-1.10,95%CI:[-1.41,-0.79],P<0.05;very low certainty),and can significantly increase the quality of sleep(MD=-2.92,95%CI:[-4.89,-0.95],P<0.05;low certainty).Compared with acupuncture intervention,FEM-therapy combined with acupuncture can decreased the anxiety(SMD=-0.64,95%CI:[-0.98,-0.30],P<0.05;Moderate certainty)and depression(SMD=-0.68,95%CI:[-1.00,-0.32],P<0.05;Moderate certainty).Conclusion:Traditional Chinese FEM therapy combined with other treatments are effective in alleviating negative emotions among cancer patients.In order to better improve the quality of life of cancer patients and give more reliable advice,more trials of direct comparisons are needed to inform clinical decision-making with greater confidence.

Diagnosis and treatment of novel coronavirus pneumonia based on the theory of traditional Chinese medicine

Since the outbreak of novel coronavirus pneumonia(coronavirus disease 2019,COVID-19),it has rapidly spread to 187 countries,causing serious harm to the health of people and a huge social burden.However,currently,drugs specifically approved for clinical use are not available,except for vaccines against COVID-19 that are being evaluated.Traditional Chinese medicine(TCM)is capable of performing syndrome differentiation and treatment according to the clinical manifestations of patients,and has a better ability of epidemic prevention and control.The authors comprehensively analyzed the etiology and pathogenesis of COVID-19 based on the theory of TCM,and discussed its syndrome differentiation,treatment and prevention measures so as to provide strategies and reference for the prevention and treatment with TCM.