[Evaluation on methodological problems in reports concerning quantitative analysis of syndrome differentiation of diabetes mellitus].
OBJECTIVE
To evaluate the quality of reports published in recent 10 years in China about quantitative analysis of syndrome differentiation for diabetes mellitus (DM) in order to explore the methodological problems in these reports and find possible solutions.


METHODS
The main medical literature databases in China were searched. Thirty-one articles were included and evaluated by the principles of clinical epidemiology.


RESULTS
There were many mistakes and deficiencies in these articles, such as clinical trial designs, diagnosis criteria for DM, standards of syndrome differentiation of DM, case inclusive and exclusive criteria, sample size and estimation, data comparability and statistical methods.


CONCLUSIONS
It is necessary and important to improve the quality of reports concerning quantitative analysis of syndrome differentiation of DM in light of the principles of clinical epidemiology.
Chen
Bi-Cang
BC
Second Department of Internal Medicine, Quanzhou Hospital of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Fujian College of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Quanzhou, Fujian Province 362000, China.
Wu
Qiu-Ying
QY
Xiang
Cheng-Bin
CB
Zhou
Yi
Y
Guo
Ling-Xiang
LX
Zhao
Neng-Jiang
NJ
Yang
Shu-Yu
SY
D015706:Bibliometrics; D003920:Diabetes Mellitus / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000188:drug therapy; D003937:Diagnosis, Differential; D005069:Evaluation Studies as Topic; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008516:Medicine, Chinese Traditional; D011786:Quality Control; D012107:Research Design