A critical review to grading systems and recommendations of traditional Chinese medicine guidelines.

ABSTRACT:

Objectives

To investigate how many traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) guidelines adopted a grading system and the differences among them, and the distribution of level of evidence used to support TCM recommendations.

Methods

A comprehensive search of relevant guideline webpages and literature databases were undertaken from inception to August 2018 to identify guidelines including TCM interventions. Two independent reviewers extracted the information about grading systems and recommendations.

Results

One hundred forty-two TCM guidelines were included, among which, 68 (47.9%) adopted a total of eight grading systems. The definitions, letters, and codes among these systems varied significantly. A total of 1284 recommendations were extracted from included TCM guidelines.

SUBMITTER: Li J 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7285562 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature