Evidence mapping is a new type of comprehensive evidence research method that systematically collects, evaluates, and synthesizes existing evidence to clarify research status and gaps, thereby promoting scientific research and decision-making. After nearly 20 years of development, the methodology of evidence mapping has been continuously improved, and has gained wide attention and recognition from the international community. China has paid much attention to evidence mapping at an early stage, but there are relatively few theoretical and practical researches, and the concept definition is inconsistent. This paper introduces the methodology of evidence mapping production and reporting for researchers to use for reference, with a view to further promoting the research and development of evidence mapping in China.
ObjectiveTo retrieve and summarize the clinical studies on traditional Chinese medicine for heart failure prevention and treatment and to observe the distribution of evidence in the field of heart failure by using the method of evidence map.MethodsPubMed, Web of Science, EMbase, CNKI, WanFang Data and VIP databases were searched from January 2000 to January 2020. Clinical studies, systematic reviews, guidelines, and clinical pathways related to traditional Chinese medicine for heart failure prevention and treatment were included, and the distribution characteristics of evidence were analyzed by using charts and text descriptions.ResultsA total of 8 580 papers were included, including 8 398 clinical studies (6 821 randomized controlled trials, 1 109 non-randomized controlled trials and 468 observational studies), 160 systematic reviews, and 22 guidelines, expert consensus and pathway studies. The number of clinical studies domestically and abroad showed an overall growth trend. The sample size was concentrated in 60- 100 cases. Coronary atherosclerotic heart disease was the most common comorbidity of heart failure. AMSTAR scores of systematic reviews were primarily 4 to 8. The results of high-quality randomized controlled trials and systematic reviews showed that traditional Chinese medicine combined with conventional Western medicine in the treatment of heart failure had certain advantages in improving heart function, quality of life and prognosis.ConclusionsHigh-quality clinical studies show that traditional Chinese medicine has certain advantages in the efficacy and safety of heart failure prevention and treatment; however, few studies have high methodological quality. In the future, multi-center, large sample size, and high methodological quality clinical studies are needed to further explore the efficacy and safety of traditional Chinese medicine therapy in the field of heart failure.
ObjectiveTo systematically search and sort out the clinical research literature on the treatment of AIDS by traditional Chinese medicine compound preparations by using the evidence map method, and to understand the distribution of evidence in this field. MethodsThe CNKI, WanFang Data, VIP, CBM, PubMed and Cochrane Library databases were electronically searched to collect studies on the treatment of AIDS with traditional Chinese medicine compound preparations from inception to August 2022. The distribution characteristics of evidence were analyzed and presented in the form of charts and words. ResultsA total of 337 articles were included, involving 268 intervention studies, 66 observational studies and 4 systematic reviews/meta-analysis. A total of 92 kinds of traditional Chinese medicine compound preparations were obtained, and the literature quantity of different preparations was obviously stratified, with Kangaibaosheng preparation being the most frequently reported. In recent years, the number of published literature has been declining, the quality of literature is generally low, and the level of evidence is not high. As for the intervention duration, this field tends to have a longer intervention observation period. As for the outcome indicators, the evaluation criteria of some indicators are not uniform, and the characteristics of TCM advantages are not reflected. The quantity and quality of systematic reviews/meta-analyses were insufficient. No normative consensus or guidelines for the treatment of AIDS with traditional Chinese medicine compound preparations had been formed. Conclusionstudies on the effectiveness and safety of traditional Chinese medicine compound preparations in treating AIDS has initially formed a certain scale of evidence group. In the future, it is necessary to further improve the quality of studies, explore outcome indicators that can reflect the advantages of TCM efficacy, and formulate relevant guidelines in a standardized manner.
Clinical practice guidelines will be incorporated in different evidence sources and evidence types, the research and exploration of multiple sources of evidence at China and foreign, this paper advocates the construction of both characteristics of multi-source evidence of traditional Chinese medicine, by combing 70 guide manuals, analyze the necessity and advantages of multi-source evidence construction, and further from the multi-source evidence source and evidence logic theory interpretation and application, in order to provide methodological references for the formulation of evidence-based clinical practice guidelines of traditional Chinese medicine.
Objective The effectiveness of systematic identification, description and evaluation of dietary sugar reduction strategies through the evidence diagram method. Methods The CNKI, WanFang Data, VIP, CBM, PubMed, Embase, Web of Science and Cochrane Library database were electronically searched to collect systematic reviews/meta-analysis on the effectiveness of dietary sugar reduction strategies from inception to November 10, 2022, AMSTAR-2 was used to evaluate the methodological quality of the included studies. Microsoft Excel 2019 was used to design a data extraction table to extract relevant key information. Bubble charts were used to comprehensively present information such as study population, intervention type, number of primary studies included, and outcome measures. Results A total of 11 papers were included, all of which were systematic reviews/meta-analysis. The studies included ten interventions. Among them, the research ending of behavioral changes strategies, healthy diet, sugar tax, material substitution, sugar label, and community intervention showed obvious effectiveness, while social cognitive models, sugar reduction guidelines, health literacy, and knowledge attitude behavior models had not shown a clear and beneficial effect, indicating that the intervention effect on the theoretical basis was very small. Conclusion The current evidence diagram shows that the sugar reduction strategy is effective, but there are also intervention conclusions that the effectiveness of the conclusion is not clear and intervention blank. And based on the theoretical dietary sugar reduction strategy, the validity evidence is relatively scarce. In the future, high quality research will still be required.
ObjectiveTo use the evidence map system to search and sort out the clinical research on the prevention and treatment of hyperlipidemia with proprietary Chinese medicine, and to understand the distribution of evidence in this field. MethodsThe literature on the treatment of hyperlipidemia with proprietary Chinese medicines was retrieved from CNKI, WanFang Data, VIP, SinoMed, PubMed, Cochrane Library, Embase and Web of Science databases from inception to December 2022. The distribution characteristics of evidence were analyzed and presented by means of text and graph. ResultsA total of 865 articles were included and 79 kinds of proprietary Chinese medicines were obtained. The Xuezhikang tablets or capsules were the most frequently used. In recent years, the number of published articles showed a downward trend, and the literature quality was generally low. Most of the research intervention programs only used Chinese patent medicine, and the sample size of a single study was mostly 60-100 patients, and the study course was 4-8 weeks. Clinical studies did not highlight the characteristics of traditional Chinese medicine, and only 12.7% of the studies limited the syndrome type of traditional Chinese medicine in the study population. In terms of the selection of outcome indicators, more attention was paid to blood lipid levels and safety indicators, while less attention was paid to indicators such as traditional Chinese medicine syndrome scores. ConclusionThe results show that Chinese patent medicine has certain advantages in the prevention and treatment of hyperlipidemia, but there are some deficiencies in the reports of methodology and clinical characteristics, and the overall quality of the research is low.