Traditional, complementary and integrative medicine therapies for the treatment of mild/moderate acute COVID-19: protocol for a systematic review and network meta-analysis.

Li A, Guyatt G, Chu D, Thabane L, Busse JW, Sadeghirad B, He Q, Ge L, Hao Q, Vohra S, Brinkhaus B, Witt CM, Li Y, Krishnan G, Agoritsas T, Wieland LS, Chaturvedi S, Kothari KU, Patwardhan B, Fang M, Kong L, Ren J, Lee MS, Cheung A, Okwen PM, Downey B, Ang L, Zhu J, Zhang Y

BMJ Open 14 (11) e088959 [2024-11-07; online 2024-11-07]

Increasing evidence has emerged for traditional, complementary and integrative medicine (TCIM) to treat COVID-19 which requires systematic summaries of the net benefits of interventions against standard care and one another. The study aims to conduct a systematic review and network meta-analysis (NMA) regarding TCIM therapies for treating mild/moderate acute COVID-19, potentially informing the WHO guideline development and clinical decision-making. We will search Embase, MEDLINE, Virtual Health Library on Traditional Complementary and Integrative Medicine, Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials, WHO's International Clinical Trials Registry Platform with additional searches of Chinese and Korean literature sources for randomised controlled trials comparing TCIM with placebo, standard care, no treatment or with an alternate type of TCIM to treat COVID-19. We will limit the search dates from 2020 to 28 March 2024. Reviewers will, in duplicate, screen eligible articles, extract data and evaluate the risk of bias. We will conduct frequentist network meta-analyses for network comparisons and each outcome. We will assess the certainty of evidence using the Grading of Recommendations Assessment, Development and Evaluation approach and classify interventions from most to least effective or harmful. This NMA is based on the existing trials and data which is not subject to ethical approval. We will publish the NMA in a peer-reviewed journal. This may provide methodological reference and clinical evidence for TCIM on future epidemic-prone diseases. CRD42024517321.

PubMed 39515857

DOI 10.1136/bmjopen-2024-088959

Crossref 10.1136/bmjopen-2024-088959

pmc: PMC11552603
pii: bmjopen-2024-088959