Revised STandards for Reporting Interventions in Clinical Trials of Acupuncture (STRICTA): Extending the CONSORT Statement

Abstract

The STandards for Reporting Interventions in Clinical Trials of Acupuncture (STRICTA) were published in five journals in 2001 and 2002. These guidelines, in the form of a checklist and explanations for use by authors and journal editors, were designed to improve reporting of acupuncture trials, particularly the interventions, thereby facilitating their interpretation and replication. Subsequent reviews of the application and impact of STRICTA have highlighted the value of STRICTA as well as scope for improvements and revision. To manage the revision process a collaboration between the STRICTA Group, the CONSORT Group, and the Chinese Cochrane Centre was developed in 2008. An expert panel with 47 participants was convened that provided electronic feedback on a revised draft of the checklist. At a subsequent face-to-face meeting in Freiburg, a group of 21 participants further revised the STRICTA checklist and planned dissemination. The new STRICTA checklist, which is an official extension of CONSORT, includes six items and 17 sub-items. These set out reporting guidelines for the acupuncture rationale, the details of needling, the treatment regimen, other components of treatment, the practitioner background, and the control or comparator interventions. In addition, and as part of this revision process, the explanations for each item have been elaborated, and examples of good reporting for each item are provided. In addition, the word "controlled" in STRICTA is replaced by "clinical," to indicate that STRICTA is applicable to a broad range of clinical evaluation designs, including uncontrolled outcome studies and case reports. It is intended that the revised STRICTA, in conjunction with both the main CONSORT Statement and extension for nonpharmacologic treatment, will raise the quality of reporting of clinical trials of acupuncture.

The Effectiveness of Acupuncture Combined with Tuina Therapy in Patients with Migraine

“…Written informed consent was obtained from all participants prior to inclusion in the study. The study is reported in compliance with the CONSORT statement (www.consort-statement.org) [27] as well as STRICTA (Standards for Reporting Interventions in Clinical Trials of Acupuncture) [28]. …”

Quality of reporting on randomized controlled trials of acupuncture for stroke rehabilitation

“…The CONSORT statement has been further revised and is published as the CONSORT 2010 statement. Combined with the CONSORT statement, the acupuncture-specific Standards for Reporting Interventions in Controlled Trials of Acupuncture (STRICTA) were designed to help authors fully report the acupuncture intervention in clinical trials [15,16]. The combination of both tools helps us evaluate the completeness and transparency of RCTs reports on acupuncture for stroke rehabilitation according to their items.…”

Effects of Electroacupuncture for Knee Osteoarthritis: A Systematic Review and Meta‐Analysis

“…The frequency of electrical stimulation was between 2 hertz (Hz) and 100 Hz and was applied for a range of time between 20 and 60 minutes. Details of EA treatments are displayed in Table 2, referring to the Standards for Reporting Interventions in Clinical Trials of Acupuncture (STRICA) [57]. …”