title: Quality of reporting on randomised controlled trials of auriculotherapy for pain.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  The authors investigated the quality of reporting for randomised controlled trials of auriculotherapy for pain before and after the implementation of the Consolidated Standards of Reporting Trials (CONSORT) and Standards for Reporting Interventions in Controlled Trials of Acupuncture (STRICTA) guidelines.
  
  
  METHODS
  The authors identified randomised controlled trials of auriculotherapy that measured pain or pain medication use as a primary outcome and were published in English in peer-reviewed journals. Proportions of studies that reported STRICTA and CONSORT items were compared for the years before and after implementation of STRICTA (2001) using Fisher's exact tests. Global differences across all study factors were investigated using hierarchical clustering and principle component analysis (PCA).
  
  
  RESULTS
  15 studies met our inclusion criteria. On average, 11 studies (74%) reported STRICTA items and eight studies (54%) reported CONSORT items. Differences in reporting between pre and post-STRICTA studies were found for two CONSORT items (randomised sequence and treatment provider) but no STRICTA items. However, the results of cluster analysis and PCA detected global differences over time for both STRICTA and CONSORT items.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Quality of reporting for studies of auriculotherapy for pain appears to have generally improved since the implementation of STRICTA and CONSORT guidelines.
authors.affiliation: Department of Family Medicine, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, NC 27599-7595, USA. gasher@med.unc.edu
authors.forename: Gary N
authors.initials: GN
authors.lastname: Asher
authors.forename: Alison A
authors.initials: AA
authors.lastname: Motsinger-Reif
authors.forename: Daniel E
authors.initials: DE
authors.lastname: Jonas
authors.forename: Anthony J
authors.initials: AJ
authors.lastname: Viera
mesh_terms: D055097:Auriculotherapy; D016000:Cluster Analysis; D017408:Guidelines as Topic; D006801:Humans; D059408:Pain Management; D017712:Peer Review, Research / Q000592:standards*; D025341:Principal Component Analysis; D011643:Publishing / Q000592:standards*; D058996:Quality Improvement; D016032:Randomized Controlled Trials as Topic / Q000592:standards*