General characteristics of included studies
| Characteristic | No. (%) (95% CI, %) (n=476) |
| Publication language | |
| Chinese | 258 (54.2) (49.7 to 58.6) |
| English | 218 (45.8) (41.4 to 50.2) |
| Location of the study | |
| Multicountry | 10 (2.1) (1.1 to 3.8) |
| China | 397 (83.4) (79.8 to 86.5) |
| Other countries (eg, USA, Iran, Korea) | 69 (14.5) (11.6 to 17.9) |
| Type of study centre | |
| Single-centre | 180 (37.8) (33.6 to 42.3) |
| Multicentre | 296 (62.2) (57.7 to 66.4) |
| Acupuncture type | |
| Conventional acupuncture | 276 (58.0) (53.5 to 62.3) |
| Electroacupuncture | 163 (34.2) (30.1 to 38.6) |
| Small needle-knife | 12 (2.5) (1.4 to 4.4) |
| Others | 25 (5.3) (3.6 to 7.6) |
| Disease system | |
| Nervous system | 166 (34.9) (30.7 to 39.3) |
| Motor system | 68 (14.3) (11.4 to 17.7) |
| Digestive system | 61 (12.8) (10.1 to 16.1) |
| Other system | 181 (38.0) (33.8 to 42.5) |
| Source of funding | |
| Institutional funding | 369 (77.5) (73.6 to 81.0) |
| Individual funding | 1 (0.2) (0.0 to 1.2) |
| Mixed funding | 1 (0.2) (0.0 to 1.2) |
| None | 105 (22.1) (18.6 to 26.0) |
| Conflict of interest | |
| Declared of interest | 165 (34.7) (30.5 to 39.0) |
| Not mention | 311 (65.3) (61.0 to 69.5) |
| Registration | |
| Prospective registration | 127 (26.7) (22.9 to 30.8) |
| Retrospective registration | 41 (8.6) (6.4 to 11.5) |
| Unregistered | 308 (64.7) (60.3 to 68.9) |
| Journal Impact Factor, median (25th, 75th) | |
| Chinese journals | 2.5 (1.3, 4.0) |
| English journals | 2.4 (1.4, 3.0) |
| Sample size, median, (25th, 75th) | 72 (60, 100) |