Coelho Helen F, Pittler Max H, Ernst Edzard
Peninsula College of Medicine and Dentistry, Universities of Exeter and Plymouth, United Kingdom.
Altern Ther Health Med. 2007 Jul-Aug;13(4):40-4.
Previous research suggests that complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) journals publish few clinical trials, systematic reviews, and meta-analyses and a high proportion of positive articles.
This study describes the content of major CAM journals in 2005 and compares key findings with secondary data from previous years.
PubMed-indexed CAM journals publishing in 2005 were identified using the search term "(alternative OR complementary) AND medicine." Review journals were excluded. All 2005 issues of the included journals were obtained and articles read. Articles were coded according to predefined criteria regarding the type of publication, area of CAM, and whether the outcome was positive, negative, or open. For comparison purposes, secondary data from 1995 and 2000 were obtained from previous research.
Six journals publishing in 2005 (363 articles) were coded. Two datasets were produced, one excluding and one including recently established journals (2005a and 2005b, respectively). Proportionally fewer articles were clinical trials in 2005 (2005a=22.1%; 2005b=18.5%) than in 2000 (22.7%) and 1995 (27.7%). More than 50% of the 2005 articles were positive (2005a=51.1%; 2005b=50.7%), compared with 55.9% in 1995 and 43.5% in 2000.
There is an apparent shift away from effectiveness research in CAM journals. This requires further investigation, and comparisons with other journals are needed. The large proportion of positive articles published in CAM journals appears to not adequately reflect the best available effectiveness evidence. This has implications for those using CAM journals as their main source of information in this area.
先前的研究表明，补充与替代医学（CAM）期刊发表的临床试验、系统评价和荟萃分析较少，且正面文章的比例较高。
本研究描述了2005年主要CAM期刊的内容，并将主要发现与前几年的二手数据进行比较。
使用搜索词“（替代或补充）与医学”识别2005年在PubMed上索引的CAM期刊。排除综述期刊。获取了所纳入期刊的所有2005年的期刊并阅读了其中的文章。文章根据关于出版物类型、CAM领域以及结果是正面、负面还是未明确的预定义标准进行编码。为了进行比较，从先前的研究中获取了1995年和2000年的二手数据。
对2005年出版的6种期刊（363篇文章）进行了编码。生成了两个数据集，一个排除了最近成立的期刊，另一个包括这些期刊（分别为2005a和2005b）。2005年临床试验文章的比例（2005a = 22.1%；2005b = 18.5%）比2000年（22.7%）和1995年（27.7%）成比例地减少。2005年超过50%的文章是正面的（2005a = 51.1%；2005b = 50.7%），相比之下，1995年为55.9%，2000年为43.5%。
CAM期刊明显偏离了有效性研究。这需要进一步调查，并且需要与其他期刊进行比较。CAM期刊上发表的大量正面文章似乎没有充分反映现有的最佳有效性证据。这对那些将CAM期刊作为该领域主要信息来源的人具有启示意义。
