TCM nonpharmacological interventions for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD): Protocol for a systematic review and network meta-analysis.

BACKGROUND

Traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) nonpharmacological interventions are gaining an increasing popularity for chronic pulmonary obstructive disease (COPD) treatment and rehabilitation, yet their comparative effectiveness and safety remains unclear. Therefore, this study will aim to compare their effectiveness and safety for COPD by implementing a network-meta analysis.

METHODS

Electronic databases including MEDLINE via Ovid, and EMBASE via Ovid, the Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials (CENTRAL), China National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI) and Chinese BioMedical Literature Database (CBM) will be searched for related randomized controlled trials (RCTs) from inceptions to the search date without language restrictions. RCTs that compare TCM nonpharmacological interventions with placebo or conventional treatments will be included. The primary outcome will be lung function measures, dyspnea level and COPD-specified life quality and secondary ones will include functional exercise capacity, and general health-related life quality. Both classical meta-analysis and network meta-analysis will be implemented to investigate direct and indirect evidences on this topic. Continuous data will be expressed as standard mean differences (SMDs) and categorical data as risk ratios (RRs) with 95% confidence intervals. The evidence transitivity and consistency within network will be evaluated with Cochrane Q statistic and net-heat plot.

RESULTS

The study results will be disseminated through a peer-reviewed journal publication or conference presentation.

CONCLUSIONS

The review findings will provide a ranking evidence of current TCM nonpharmacological interventions and help to inform clinical practitioners, COPD patients, and policy-makers in the decision-making.

TRIAL REGISTRATION NUMBER

PROSPERO CRD42019126554.