Table 1 GRADE summary of VAS for all comparisons among trials included
Comparisons | Assessment time | Studies | Effect estimate* (95% CI) | Participants | I 2 (%) | Quality of evidence |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
MT vs usual care | At the end of the intervention | Abbott (2013) [30] Fitzgerald (2016) [34] Perlman (2006) [40] Perlman (2012) [41] Liu (2023) [53] Guo (2022) [54] | 2.04 (0.94, 3.14) | 500 | 96.30 | Low |
MT vs exercise | At the end of the intervention | Abbott (2013) [30] Fitzgerald (2016) [34] Liu (2022) [53] Guo (2022) [54] | 1.56 (0.41, 2.71) | 421 | 96.20 | Low |
MT vs herb application | At the end of the intervention | Chiranthanut (2014) [31] Dong (2021) [32] Liu (2019) [38] Qu (2020) [42] | 0.04 (− 0.49, 0.57) | 410 | 83.50 | Low |
MT vs oral analgesics | At the end of the intervention | Chiranthanut (2014) [31] Xu (2021) [44] Yao (2018) [45] | 0.55 (− 0.08, 1.18) | 197 | 77.50 | Very low |
MT vs acupuncture | At the end of the intervention | Liang (2012) [36] Zhang (2018) [48] Yang (2022) [49] |  − 0.53 (− 1.38, 0.33) | 568 | 92.20 | Low |
MT vs intra-articular injection | At the end of the intervention | Peng (2018) [39] Ma (2022) [51] | 0.47 (− 0.91, 1.86) | 172 | 94.20 | Very low |
MT vs moxibustion | At the end of the intervention | Lai (2020) [35] | N/A | 40 | N/A | Very low |
MT vs cupping | At the end of the intervention | Xu (2022) [50] | N/A | 68 | N/A | Very low |