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The need
for better standards of reporting of controlled trials of acupuncture has been evident for
some time. In particular, poor standards of reporting of interventions in trials of
acupuncture has led to difficulties with their interpretation and analysis. It was in this context that an opportunity arose
at a meeting of an international group of acupuncture researchers at Exeter University, UK, from 2nd
to 4th July 2001. Initiated by Dr Hugh MacPherson, one
of the tasks of the group was to draft a set of recommendations for better reporting of
acupuncture trial interventions. At this point these recommendations were named the
STRICTA recommendations: STandards for Reporting
Interventions in Controlled Trials of Acupuncture. They
were designed as a supplement to CONSORT which has led to improved reporting
of trial design and conduct in general (see the CONSORT
Statement).
This first
draft of recommendations went through a wider consensus-building process that involved the
editors of the key journals within the field that were publishing the results of
clinical trials of acupuncture. Thus
the STRICTA recommendations went through a second drafting phase with journal editors and
their advisors, the aim being to identify a checklist
of the key items. The guiding principle was a
commitment to achieving a broad enough set of recommendations that would cover the most
common approaches to both acupuncture and research design. These recommendations were
co-published in articles by the key journals in the field. Participating journals are Acupuncture in Medicine, Clinical
Acupuncture and Oriental Medicine, Complementary Therapies in Medicine, Journal of
Alternative and Complementary Medicine and Medical Acupuncture. Participating journals
have added the STRICTA recommendations to their instructions to authors. Translations into
languages other than English are now available in Chinese,
Japanese and Korean.
A
recent initiative has seen two reviews of STRICTA being conducted: the
first a review of authors of clinical trials and systematic reviews (Prady
& MacPherson 2007); the second being a review of the impact of
STRICTA over the last six years (Prady et
al 2008).
Current plans are to revise STRICTA in collaboration with the Cochrane
Group, such that STRICTA becomes an "official" extension to
CONSORT (click here for details).
