Review Article

Effectiveness and Safety of Herbal Medicine for Atopic Dermatitis: An Overview of Systematic Reviews

Table 3

Quality of evidence for the main findings.

OutcomeNo. of participants (RCTs)Quality of evidence (GRADE)Relative risk (95% CI)Anticipated absolute effects (95% CI)Comments
Risk with control interventionRisk with treatment intervention

HM versus placebo
SCORAD score25 (1 RCT)⊕⊕○○
LOW
MD 10.65 lower [-16.24, -5.06]Risk of bias (−1)
Imprecision (−1)
TER25 (1 RCT)⊕⊕○○
LOW
RR 9.43 [1.44, 61.85]91 per 1,000857 per 1,000 [131, 1,091]Risk of bias (−1)
Imprecision (−1)
Adverse events rate178 (3 RCTs)⊕⊕○○
LOW
RR 1.23 [0.65, 2.35]154 per 1,000189 per 1,000 [100, 362]Risk of bias (−1)
Imprecision (−1)

HM versus active controls
SCORAD score1,285 (17 RCTs)⊕⊕○○
LOW
MD 11.39 lower [-14.21, -8.57]Risk of bias (−1) Inconsistency (−1)
TER2,812 (33 RCTs)⊕⊕⊕○
MODERATE
RR 1.31 [1.23, 1.40]703 per 1,000921 per 1,000 [864, 984]Risk of bias (−1)
Adverse events rate1,507 (19 RCTs)⊕⊕○○
LOW
RR 0.40 [0.26, 0.64]98 per 1,00039 per 1,000 [25, 63]Risk of bias (−1) Imprecision (−1)

HM combined with active controls versus active controls alone
SCORAD score333 (4 RCTs)⊕⊕⊕○
MODERATE
MD 6.05 lower [-7.86, -4.25]Risk of bias (−1)
TER1,329 (17 RCTs)⊕⊕○○
LOW
RR 1.19 [1.06, 1.34]797 per 1,000948 per 1,000 [845, 1,068]Risk of bias (−1) Publication bias (−1)
Adverse events rate558 (8 RCTs)⊕○○○
VERY LOW
RR 1.21 [0.43, 3.39]78 per 1,00094 per 1,000 [33, 265]Risk of bias (−1) Inconsistency (−1) Imprecision (−1)

CI, confidence interval; GRADE, grading of recommendations assessment, development, and evaluation; HM, herbal medicine; MD, mean difference; RCT, randomized controlled trial; RR, risk ratio; SCORAD, scoring atopic dermatitis; TER, total effective rate.