Skip to main content

Table 2 Primary and secondary outcomesa

From: Effectiveness of acupuncture at acupoint BL1 (Jingming) in comparison with artificial tears for moderate to severe dry eye disease: a randomized controlled trial

Variable

Acupuncture group (n=60)

Artificial tear group (n=60)

Difference (95% CI)

P value

Primary outcome

 SIT at weeks 8, mean (95% CI)

9.25 (6.00 to 12.75)

4.34 (2.94 to 5.98)

  

 SIT Change, at weeks 8, mean (95%CI)

5.75 (2.53 to 9.75)

0.52 (− 1.18 to 2.46)

5.23 (1.34 to 9.12)

0.01

Secondary outcomes

 Change, SIT, mean (95% CI)

  At week 4

5.16 (2.94 to 7.87)

− 0.30 (− 1.62 to 1.28)

5.46 (2.73 to 8.18)

<0.001

  At week 32

2.05 (0.94 to 4.47)

0.16 (− 1.94 to 2.83)

1.89 (0.54 to 4.07)

0.066

 Change, Average symptom NRSa, mean (95% CI)

  At week 4

− 2.26 (− 5.07 to1.63)

− 1.69 (− 5.05 to 1.89)

0.57 (− 2.15 to 2.46)

0.162

  At week 8

− 2.96 (− 4.94 to 1.87)

− 2.55 (− 4.25 to 1.95)

0.38 (− 2.46 to 3.08)

0.084

  At week 32

− 3.10 (− 2.46 to1.54)

− 1.22 (− 0.89 to 0.09)

1.88 (− 0.46 to 3.57)

0.036

 Change, OSDI, mean (95% CI)b

  At week 4

− 9.46 (− 32.66 to 13.59)

− 5.26 (− 20.05 to 21.89)

4.20 (− 14.35 to 18.56)

0.140

  At week 8

− 16.14 (− 35.40 to 16.30)

− 7.65 (− 19.25 to 15.05)

8.49 (− 5.26 to 22.14)

0.036

  At week 32a

− 18.18 (− 26.46 to 16.54)

− 6.03 (− 21.89 to 19.32)

12.15 (− 4.68 to 15.46)

0.017

 Change, TBUT, mean (95% CI)

  At week 4

1.56 (− 0.13 to 3.06)

0.16 (− 0.80 to 1.16)

1.40 (− − 0.46 to 3.27)

0.136

  At week 8

1.72 (−.12 to 3.25)

0.44 (− 0.76 to 1.68)

1.28 (− 1.01 to 3.26)

0.294

  At week 32

0.46 (− 0.14 to 2.46)

0.12 (−0.43 to 1.89)

0.34 (− 1.01 to 2.26)

0.569

 Change, CFS, mean (95% CI)

  At week 4

− 2.99 (1.00 to 4.25)

− 2.38 (0.40 to 3.96)

0.61 (− 0.18 to 2.54)

0.136

  At week 8

− 3.25 (0.98 to 4.58)

− 3.06 (0.78 to 4.14)

0.29 (− 0.85 to 2.12)

0.214

  At week 32

− 2.15 (1.54 to 2.46)

− 2.57 (− 0.09 to 0.89)

0.14 (− 1.07 to 1.92)

0.325

Treatment acceptability assessment, number(% )c

Little difficult: 6 (10%)

Moderate: 16 (26.7%)

Easy: 32 (53.3%)

Very easy: 6 (10.0%)

Little difficult: 5 (8.3%)

Moderate: 10 (16.7%)

Easy: 35 (58.3%)

Very easy: 10 (16.7%)

 

0.130

  1. SIT Schirmer-I test, NRS numerical rating scale, OSDI ocular surface disease index, TBUT tear break-up time, CFS corneal fluorescein staining, CI confidence intervals
  2. aScoring is the sum of the totals divided by 8 (8 symptoms in total)
  3. bScoring was additive (0 [better outcomes] to 44 [worse outcomes]). Minimal clinically important difference: 13.9
  4. cTreatment acceptability was assessed by the chi-square tests. All participants (120) were included in the acceptability assessment and the participants who did not complete the treatments were all evaluated as a little difficulty in acceptability
Back to article page

Trials

ISSN: 1745-6215