| Summary: | Background Acupuncture is one of the non-pharmacological methods for the treatment of obstructive sleep apnea hypopnea syndrome (OSAHS). The progression of research evidence on acupuncture for OSAHS to high quality islimited by the defects in the outcome indicators of randomized controlled trials (RCTs) of acupuncture for OSAHS. Therefore, it is of reference value to analyze the outcome indicators of RCTs of acupuncture for OSAHS. Objective To analyze the outcome indicators of RCTs of acupuncture for OSAHS in the past 10 years, clarify the existing problems and provide suggestions for the guidance of further studies. Methods CNKI, Wanfang Data, VIP, SinoMed, PubMed, Embase, Cochrane Library, Web of Science, Clinical Trials.gov were searched for the RCTs of acupuncture for OSAHS from 2012-01-01 to 2022-11-18 with a combination of subject terms and free terms. The Cochrane Risk of Bias Assessment Tool was used to evaluate the quality of the included literature and sort out outcome indicators. Results A total of 2 085 relevant papers were obtained from the preliminary search, and 12 papers were included after duplicating and multiple screening, and the outcome indicators were classified into traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) syndrome indicators, clinical symptom indicators, clinical efficacy indicators, neuroimaging indicators, polysomnography indicators, other examination indicators, serological indicators, life quality indicators and safety indicators. The most frequently reported outcome indicators were polysomnography indicators, followed by clinical symptom indicators. Conclusion The outcome indicators of RCTs of acupuncture for OSAHS have problems such as indistinguishable priorities, various clinical symptom indicators, inadequate application of serological indicators, limited safety evaluation, lack of standard for TCM characteristic syndrome differentiation indicators and long-term efficacy and economic evaluation. It is recommended to conduct more high-quality researches to strengthen the connection between TCM characteristic syndrome differentiation indicators, modern science and technology indicators and clinical studies, unify standard of syndrome differentiation of OSAHS, strengthen the awareness of conducting economic and safe clinical researches, so as to establish a core set of indicators of acupuncture treatment for OSAHS.
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