• Korean Journal of Acupuncture
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• v.35 no.2
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• pp.70-81
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• 2018

Objectives : To investigate the association of trial registration status with presence of reporting bias including publication bias and outcome reporting bias in recently published randomized controlled trials (RCTs) of acupuncture. Methods : A PubMed search for RCTs of acupuncture published from March 2016 to February 2017 was conducted. Primary outcomes were identified and the direction of the results was judged as positive (i.e., statistically significant) or negative. The trial registration was identified by manually screening the trial registration number in the main text of the published article and classified into 1) prospective registration; 2) retrospective registration based on the registration date or; 3) no registration. Results : Of the 125 included RCTs, only 40 studies (32.0%) prospectively registered the study protocols. Among 65 RCTs that adequately reported the primary outcome, unregistered trials were more likely to report positive results than the registered ones (p=0.013). Of the 40 prospectively registered studies, 19 trials (47.5%) had the discrepancies between the registered and published primary outcomes and furthermore, 40% of them reported the positive findings. Conclusions : Unregistered trials were more likely to report positive results and the discrepancies between the registered and published primary outcomes were detected in about a half of the prospectively registered studies, 42.1% of which tended to report positive findings. Journal editors and researchers in this field should be alerted to various reporting biases.

• The Journal of Pediatrics of Korean Medicine
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• v.35 no.3
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• pp.53-66
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• 2021

Objective The purpose of this study is to evaluate whether herbal bath shortens the duration of pediatric fever. Methods Databases, such as Medline, EMBASE, Cochrane library, OASIS, KISS, KMBASE, CNKI, Wanfang Med Online were used to search randomized controlled trials. Those trials that included children younger than 18-year-old were evaluated for the clinical efficacy of herbal bath in fever by analyzing 'body temperature (BT) drop start time' and 'time to return to normal BT'. Results 12 studies or 1306 participants were analyzed in the study. When applying herbal bath in combination with the controlled treatment, 'BT drop start time' was decreased by 0.11 hours, and 'time to return to normal BT' was decreased by 10.94 hours compared to the controlled group. When comparing herbal bath with tepid bath, 'time to return to normal BT' was reduced by 8.19 hours in herbal bath group. In regards to safety, 3 studies out of 12 studies mentioned about its adverse events: 2 studies did not have any adverse events, and a minor needle-shaped bleeding had occurred in one of the studies. Conclusion Use of herbal bath as a treatment of fever in children was associated with shortened duration of fever. However, cautious interpretation is necessary due to its limited safety data.

• Clinical and Experimental Pediatrics
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• v.64 no.7
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• pp.341-346
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• 2021

Background: The results differ among published studies regarding exposure to meconium and the risk of developing autism spectrum disorders (ASDs). Purpose: The present study pooled all of the epidemiologic studies retrieved from broader databases on the association between meconium exposure and risk of developing ASD in children. Methods: The Web of Science, PubMed, Scopus, and Google Scholar databases were searched without language restrictions for articles published between their inception to February 20, 2020, using relevant keywords. The pooled odds ratios (ORs) and their 95% confidence intervals (CIs) were calculated as random-effect estimates of the associations among studies. A subgroup analysis was conducted to explore any potential sources of heterogeneity among studies. Results: The pooled estimate of OR reported a weakly significant association between meconium exposure and ASD development in children (OR, 1.13; 95% CI, 1.03-1.24). There was low heterogeneity among the articles reporting risk for ASD among children (I²=19.3%; P=0.259). The results of subgroup analysis based on meconium exposure showed a significant association between a meconium-stained neonate and ASD development (OR, 1.18; 95% CI, 1.11-1.24). Couclusion: Meconium exposure was weakly associated with an increased risk of ASD. However, more evidence based on large prospective cohort studies is required to provide conclusive evidence about whether meconium exposure is associated with an increased risk of ASD development.

• Journal of Oriental Neuropsychiatry
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• v.32 no.3
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• pp.207-217
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• 2021

Objectives: The objective of this study was to perform a scoping review to describe clinical study trends on Qigong in order to identify further directions of Qigong in Korean medicine. Methods: Under the Arksey and O'Malley methodological framework, PubMed was searched to identify articles published from January 1, 2019 to June 28, 2021. A total of 224 articles were retrieved. Results were systematically filtered by two independent reviewers based on inclusion/exclusion criteria. Publication information, disease, intervention and research results of a total of 153 articles were extracted and analyzed. Results: Asia had the largest number of Qigong studies (82 studies, 65%). Most research studies were conducted in the academic field of Medicine (n=109, 86.5%), including Complementary and Alternative Medicine (n=35), Medicine (miscellaneous) (n=15), and Oncology (n=15). Based on ICD-10 classification, Mental and Behavioral Disorder (n=25, 19.8%) was the most frequently analyzed decease, followed by Neoplasm (n=24) and Disease of the Nervous system (n=12). Almost half of all studies were Systematic Reviews. RCTs only accounted for 25.4%. Interventions were very diverse and inconsistent. Sixty (47.6%) studies analyzed Qigong as a single intervention. In 66 cases, Qigong was analyzed as part of a large category such as Mind-Body intervention. Most studies designed a Donggong (動功) program. The age of the population was relatively high as 47.1% of all studies were conducted on middle aged or older adults. Conclusions: These findings suggest that further standardized research on Qigong, especially Junggong (靜功), needs to be conducted by developing research protocols and practice programs to verify effects of Qigong and utilize Qigong as a medical intervention in Korean Medicine.

• Korean Journal of Acupuncture
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• v.36 no.1
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• pp.19-35
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• 2019

Objectives : The purpose of this study is to review which acupoints and meridians are selected to treat visceral pain in articles published in international journals and to investigate quality of reporting acupuncture intervention according to the STRICTA guidelines. Methods : Electrical and hand search were conducted in PubMed, EMBASE, MEDLINE, and Cochrane Library for acupuncture studies on visceral pain in human and animals. Reporting quality of intervention was evaluated using the revised STRICTA guidelines. Results : We included 51 articles (7 clinical studies and 44 animal studies) in this study. The most frequently adopted meridians and acupoints were Stomach meridian, Spleen meridian, Conception Vessel meridian, and ST36, CV4, SP6, LI4, PC6, SP9, ST25, ST37 in clinical studies. In animal studies, Stomach meridian, Conception Vessel meridian, Pericardium meridian and ST36, ST37, CV12, PC6 were most frequently used. Animal studies showed significantly lower quality of reporting compared to clinical studies. According to the analysis on the effect of year of publication of articles, announcement of STRICTA guidelines did not improve the quality of reporting for studies on visceral pain. Conclusions : These results suggest that both proximal and distal acupoints based on meridian theory were used to study the underlying mechanisms of visceral pain both in human and animal studies. Guidelines of acupuncture intervention reporting for animal study is necessary to improve the quality of evidence, and it will also allow us the integrative understanding of the mechanisms and clinical effects of acupuncture treatment in human and animal.

• Journal of the Korean Association of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeons
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• v.45 no.5
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• pp.241-253
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• 2019

This study evaluated and compared the donor site morbidity following minimally invasive and conventional open harvesting of iliac bone for secondary alveolar bone grafting in cleft palate patients. A thorough electronic search of PubMed, Google Scholar, EMBASE, and an institutional library and manual search of various journals was done; Inclusion criteria: 1) full-text articles using a minimally invasive or conventional open harvesting technique for iliac bone for secondary alveolar grafting in cleft palate patients and 2) articles published between January 1, 2001 and June 30, 2017 and Exclusion criteria: 1) articles published in languages other than English, 2) case reports, case series, animal studies, in vitro studies, and letters to the editor, and 3) full-text article unavailable even after writing to the authors. Preliminary screening of 274 studies excluded 223 studies for not meeting the eligibility criteria. Of the remaining 51 studies, 19 were removed for being duplicates. Of the remaining 32 studies, 15 were excluded after reading the abstract. Of the 17 studies that were left, 2 were excluded because they were in a language other than English, and 2 were excluded because the study group did not mention cleft palate patients. Thus, 13 studies providing results for a total of 654 patients were included in this qualitative synthesis. Minimally invasive bone graft harvest techniques are better than the conventional open iliac bone harvest method because they offer shorter operative time, decreased requirement for pain medications, less pain on discharge, and a shorter hospital stay.

• Journal of Acupuncture Research
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• v.36 no.2
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• pp.72-79
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• 2019

Background: The aim of this study was to review clinical efficacy of acupuncture treatment of mild cognitive impairment. Methods: Randomized controlled trials that performed acupuncture treatment for mild cognitive impairment were retrieved from 6 online databases (PubMed, Cochrane Library, EMBASE, CNKI, NDSL, OASIS) on September $30^{th}$, 2018. Studies were selected according to inclusion and exclusion criteria, and were reviewed by Risk of Bias assessment. Results: In total, 21 studies were included in this review. All studies were Chinese (19 studies published in Chinese and 2 in English). The sample size, 50 to 100, and the number of treatment times, 20 to 30, were the largest range in all studies. The most treatments performed was 30. The longest treatment period was 56 days, which accounted for 33% of the studies. The most frequently used evaluation index was the Mini Mental State Examination followed by the Montreal Cognitive Assessment, each used 17 times and 15 times, respectively. The most frequently used acupoints were GV20, EX-HN1, GB20, and GV24, which accounted for 47% of total number of acupoints used. In 48% of the studies, needle retention time was 30 minutes. Western medicine treatment was the most common control group. Most studies reported that the intervention group was statistically significantly different to the control group. Conclusion: These results suggest that acupuncture for mild cognitive impairment was effective. However, it is difficult to confirm this conclusion because the quality of most of these studies were of low quality.

• Nutrition Research and Practice
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• v.15 no.3
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• pp.329-345
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• 2021

BACKGROUD/OBJECTIVES: Evidence has suggested an association between serum vitamin D and metabolic syndrome (MetS), but prospective studies are very limited. The objective was to assess the dose-response association between serum vitamin D concentration and MetS risk using a systematic review and meta-analysis of updated observational studies. MATERIALS/METHODS: Using MEDLINE, PubMed, and Embase, a systematic literature search was conducted through February 2020 and the references of relevant articles were reviewed. A random-effects model was used to estimate the summary odds ratio/relative risk and 95% confidence interval (CI). Heterogeneity among studies was evaluated with I² statistic. In total, 23 observational studies (19 cross-sectional studies, and four cohort studies) were included in the meta-analysis. RESULTS: The pooled estimates (95% CI) for MetS per 25-nmol/L increment in serum vitamin D concentration were 0.80 (95% CI, 0.76-0.84; I² = 53.5) in cross-sectional studies, and 0.85 (95% CI, 0.72-0.98; I² = 85.8) in cohort studies. Similar results were observed, irrespectively of age of study population, study location, MetS criteria, and adjustment factors. There was no publication bias for the dose-response meta-analysis of serum vitamin D concentrations and MetS. CONCLUSIONS: Dose-response meta-analysis demonstrated that a 25-nmol/L increment in the serum vitamin D concentration was associated with 20% and 15% lower risks of MetS in cross-sectional studies and cohort studies, respectively.

• Journal of Korean Academy of Nursing
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• v.50 no.6
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• pp.740-756
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• 2020

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effect on blood pressure (BP) and heart rate (HR) according to aerobic exercise characteristics in adults with hypertension using a systematic review and meta-analysis. Methods: The related researches were selected from PubMed, EMBASE, Cochrane library, CINAHL, PsycINFO, SPORTDiscus and 5 domestic databases up to September 4, 2019. To estimate the effect size, random effect models were used to derive weighted mean differences (WMD) and their 95% confidence intervals (CI) of aerobic exercise on BP and HR. Results: A total of 37 RCTs with 1,813 samples were included. Aerobic exercise was found to significantly reduce systolic BP (WMD, - 8.29 mmHg; 95% CI, - 10.12 to - 6.46), diastolic BP (WMD, - 5.19 mmHg; 95% CI, - 6.24 to - 4.14) and HR (WMD, - 4.22 beats/min; 95% CI, - 5.36 to -3.09). In detail, systolic BP and diastolic BP were significantly decreased in all groups of exercise types, frequency and duration. Systolic BP and diastolic BP were significantly decreased in the moderate and vigorous-intensity group. Exercise characteristics with the most dramatical change in systolic BP were water-based training, moderate-intensity, 3 times a week and 8 to 11 weeks of duration. In diastolic BP, the greatest effect size was over 24 weeks of exercise. Conclusion: Moderate aerobic exercise, especially water-based exercise can be an important part of lifestyle modification for hypertensive patients. Also, it can be recommended in a variety of clinical settings for lowering BP and HR. However, there is insufficient evidence that low-intensity exercise is effective in lowering BP.

• The korean journal of orthodontics
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• v.51 no.1
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• pp.55-74
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• 2021

Objective: To systematically review studies on canine agenesis prevalence in different populations and continents, based on the jaw, sex, location, and associated dental anomalies. Methods: Electronic and hand searches of English literature in PubMed, Web of Science, Scopus, OpenGrey, and Science Direct were conducted, and the authors were contacted when necessary. Observational studies (population-based, hospital/clinic-based, and cross-sectional) were included. For study appraisal and synthesis, duplicate selection was performed independently by two reviewers. Study quality was assessed using a modified Strengthening the Reporting of Observational Studies in Epidemiology checklist, with main outcome of prevalence of canine agenesis. Results: The global population prevalence of canine agenesis was 0.30% (0.0-4.7%), highest in Asia (0.54%), followed by Africa (0.33%), and the least in Europe and South America (0.19% in both continents). Canine agenesis was more common in the maxilla (88.57%), followed by both maxilla and mandible (8.57%), and the least common was mandible-only presentation (2.86%). The condition was more common in females (female:male ratio = 1.23), except in Asia (female:male ratio = 0.88) and Africa (female:male ratio = 1). In Asia, unilateral agenesis was almost twice as prevalent as bilateral, but in Europe, the bilateral form was more common. Conclusions: The overall prevalence of canine agenesis is 0.30%, with the highest prevalence in Asia, followed by Africa, Europe, and South America. The condition is more common in the maxilla than the mandible, and in females than males (except in Asia and Africa), with unilateral agenesis being more common in Asia and the bilateral form showing a greater prevalence in Europe.