Background Sham acupuncture is usually used to assess the specific effects of acupuncture. However, the reporting quality of sham acupuncture remains unclear despite its critical importance in understanding and analyzing the effects of acupuncture. This paper presents a literature review aimed at assessing the quality of reporting of sham acupuncture in randomized controlled trials (RCTs) based on STRICTA 2010 and TIDieR-Placebo. Methods Three electronic English-language databases (PubMed, MEDLINE and Embase) were searched from inception to March 7, 2022, and RCTs of sham acupuncture were identified. The reporting quality of sham acupuncture was assessed in accordance with the items recommended in STRICTA 2010 and TIDieR-Placebo. The reporting quality of other items related to sham acupuncture apart from items from these two checklists was also captured to further assess the reporting quality of sham acupuncture. Results A total of 609 eligible studies were included. For all of the items recommended in STRICTA 2010 and TIDieR-Placebo, 100% of the studies reported a brief name that described the sham acupuncture, 93.9% studies reported the needle type, and 90.0% reported the names of the points used. Other items for which the reporting rates were above 50% included the number, frequency and duration of treatment sessions; needle retention time; and number of needle insertions per subject per session. Overall, 49.4% of the studies revealed the rationale why sham acupuncture was chosen, 39.7% of the studies involving insertion processes reported the depth of insertion, and 37.9% of the studies reported the needle manufacturer. Other items for which the reporting rates were below 30% included practitioner-related information, response sought, evaluation of blinding, intervention mode and environment, assisting tools, and the extent to which the treatment was varied. The items “Modifications”, “How well (planned)” and “How well (actual)” were not reported in any of the analyzed studies. Conclusions The overall reporting quality of sham acupuncture in RCTs was suboptimal. Although STRICTA 2010 and TIDieR-Placebo could be beneficial for describing sham acupuncture, neither can offer recommendations specifically for sham acupuncture. There is thus an urgent need to develop specialized guidelines for reporting sham acupuncture in clinical trials.

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Background: This study reviewed published evidence of the efficacy of acupuncture among women undergoing in vitro fertilization (IVF). Methods: The database included PubMed, MEDLINE, Web of Science, EMBASE, CENTRAL, Wanfang, CNKI, VIP were searched up to May 24, 2022. The primary outcomes for clinical pregnancy rate (CPR) and live birth rate (LBR) were quantitatively summarized by the random-effect model with I2 statistics to quantify heterogeneity. Results: Forty-nine eligible randomized clinical trials (RCTs)representing 9422 women undergoing IVF for pregnant success were identified. The results indicated that pooled CPR and LBR showed a significant difference between acupuncture and control groups [53 trials, odds ratio (OR)1.68, 95% confidence intervals (CI) 1.47 to 1.92, I2=47.4], extremely low evidence; 20 trials, OR1.37, 95%CI 1.11 to 1.69, I2=62.6, low evidence, respectively). Only transcutaneous electrical acupoint stimulation (TEAS) was found to be a positive effect on both CPR (10 trials, OR1.73, 95%CI 1.35 to 2.23; I2=28.1, moderate evidence) and LBR (7 trials, OR 1.74, 95%CI 1.23 to 2.46; I2=47.6, extremely low evidence). Heterogeneity across studies was found and no studies were graded as high quality of evidence. Conclusions: Our results showed that the association between acupuncture use and IVF pregnant outcomes were not supported by robust evidence and the varied methodological design and heterogeneity might influence the findings in a relevant way.Registration: PROSPERO CRD42021232430.

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