LI Xinlin, CAO Huijuan, ZHANG Yajing, et al. Current Status of Missing Data in Domestic Acupuncture Clinical Trial Reports and Its Influence on Research Conclusions[J]. Journal of Traditional Chinese Medicine2018, 59(7): 577-581.
LI Xinlin, CAO Huijuan, ZHANG Yajing, et al. Current Status of Missing Data in Domestic Acupuncture Clinical Trial Reports and Its Influence on Research Conclusions[J]. Journal of Traditional Chinese Medicine2018, 59(7): 577-581.DOI: 10.13288/j.11-2166/r.2018.07.010.
Current Status of Missing Data in Domestic Acupuncture Clinical Trial Reports and Its Influence on Research Conclusions
Objective To summarize the missing data in domestic acupuncture clinical trial reports
and to briefly explore the impact of missing data on the original conclusion after secondary analysis. Methods The researchers searched the literature in CNKI about randomized controlled trials(RCT) of acupuncture published from January 2006 to December 2015. After the screening
the missing data reporting rate and data missing rate were calculated
the reasons for data missing and the use of intention to treat(ITT) analysis were analyzed. ITT analysis was performed on the outcomes of two-arm categorical variables with missing data in the included study
and the results were compared with the original conclusions. Results A total of 3008 acupuncture RCTs were included
of which 1184(39. 4%)reported missing data. The report rate of missing data in the year 2007 decreased
but there was a rise tendency as a whole from 2006 to 2015. Totally 3008 RCT reports contained 343(11. 4%) with the cause of missing data reporting. According to the analysis of the missing data in 1184 reports
there are no missing data in 321(27. 1%) RCT reports
and there are missing data in 863 reports. There are respectively 28(2. 4%)
209(17. 6%)
and 626(52. 9%) reports with data missing rates of ≥20%
≥10% and < 20%
and < 10%. Of the 3008 included reports
only 63(2. 1%) mentioned ITT analysis
and only 30(1. 0%) reported ITT analysis results. A secondary analysis was performed on 358 two-arm trial data that reported categorical outcome variables
of which the conclusions of 108(30. 2%) were inconsistent with the original ones; 92(85. 2%) may have false positive results
16(14. 8%) may have false negative results. Conclusion Clinical acupuncture researchers in China have paid less attention to missing data reporting and the consequential impacts on trial results. Failure to use reasonable methods to deal with missing data may lead to false negative or false positive conclusions.