10 No. 16(c). It must state whether or not the persons perform- ing outcome measures were blinded to group assignments. This is more important with subjective outcomes, less so with objective outcomes where there is less chance or bias. No. 16(d). For full credit, authors must (i) state that the success of participant blinding was evaluated and (ii) present the results of the assessment. This is if acupuncture was compared to another active treatment (e.g., standard care or massage). No. 17(a). It must speciﬁcally state the statistical methods used to compare groups for primary outcomes. No. 17(b). If additional analyses were performed, the speciﬁc statistical methods used must be reported for full credit. No. 18(a). A diagram is recommended but not necessary. For full credit, authors must state the number of participants who were (i) evaluated for potential enrollment, for example, excluded due to inclusion/exclusions criteria and declined enrollment (ii) randomized, (iii) received treatment, (iv) completed treatment, and (v) analyzed for the primary outcome. No. 18(b). “Protocol deviations” pertains to the nature of protocol deviations after randomization, for example, depar- tures from the protocol including unplanned changes to the intervention, data collection, examinations, and methods of analysis, or the speciﬁc reasons for patient exclusions after randomization, including drop-outs. No. 19(a). It must state the start and ﬁnish dates of the recruitment period, to place the study in historical context. No. 19(b). It must state the length of time for the followup period; for example, participants were followed for a total of 6 months, 3 months during treatment and 3 months of posttreatment followup. No. 20(a). It must present the demographics, for example, age, gender, ethnicity. No. 20(b). It must present the clinical characteristics, for example, duration of condition, for each group. No. 21(a). For full credit, it must state the “n” per each analysis, since the actual “n” may vary per outcome. If no dropouts occurred, he “n” can be implied. No. 21(b). Must use an “intention to treat” analysis (or a valid substitute, e.g., per protocol or on treatment analysis) to avoid bias associated with non-random loss of participants. If there were no dropouts then a “Yes” is scored. No. 21(c). It must state absolute numbers, for example, reduction of VAS pain from 10 to 5 or from 6 to 3 not just a 50% reduction. No. 22(a). It must state the results or use a table/graph, for example, the mean and standard deviation of the measurements. No. 22(b). All results must indicate the eﬀect size, for example, the diﬀerence in means, odds ratio, or relative risk ratio. No. 22(c). For full credit, authors must state precision as a conﬁdence interval (CI). Only presenting P-values will score a “partial.” Evidence-Based Complementary and Alternative Medicine No. 23. If additional analyses are prespeciﬁed in the research design, the results must be presented, and it must be clearly stated whether or not these were exploratory (e.g., post hoc) analyses. No. 24. It cannot be scored as N/A. Authors need to state whether there were or were not adverse events or side eﬀects for each group. If severe AEs occurred, estimates of the frequency should be reported. No. 25(a). The relevance of the ﬁndings to the hypotheses or objectives must be discussed. No. 25(b). The strengths and weakness of the trial must be discussed, particularly in the context of potential for bias and imprecision of study ﬁndings. No. 25(c). This is usually scored as unless numer- ous analyses both prespeciﬁed and exploratory were performed. No. 26. “Generalizability” pertains to the external validity or general applicability of the results. For example, to what extent do the results of the study, with the population limited by the eligibility criteria, pertain to the greater population with this condition? Topics to consider are eligibility cri- teria, setting and location of the study, the intervention protocol, the period of recruitment and followup, and so forth. No. 27. “General interpretation” pertains to how these results relate to previous research. For full credit, authors must (i) cite and (ii) discuss the previous research. B. Reference List of 333 RCTs Included in OCSI (Alphabetical) (1) Akimoto T, Nakahori C, Aizawa K, Kimura F, Fukubayashi T, Kono I. Acupuncture and Responses of Immunologic and Endocrine Markers during Competition. Med Sci Sports Exerc 2003; 35:1296– 1302. (2) Alecrim-Andrade J, iel-Junior J, Cladellas X, Correa- Filho H, Machado H. Acupuncture in migraine prophylaxis: a randomized sham-controlled trial. Cephalalgia 2006; 26:520-529. (3) Alexander DN, Cen S, Sullivan KJ, Bhavnani G, Ma X, Azen SP. Eﬀects of acupuncture treatment on poststroke motor recovery and physical function: a pilot study. Neurorehabil Neural Repair 2004; 18:259–267. (4) Alimi D, Rubino C, Pichard-Leandri E. Analgesic Eﬀect of Auricular Acupuncture for Cancer Pain: A Randomized, Blinded, Controlled Trial. J Clin Oncol 2003; 21:4120–4126. (5) Allais G, De Lorenzo C, Quirico PE, Airola G, Tolardo G, Mana O et al. Acupuncture in the prophylactic treatment of migraine without aura: a comparison with ﬂunarizine. Headache 2002; 42:855–861.