TY - JOUR A2 - Telles, Shirley AU - Wong, Ann Rann AU - Yang, Angela Wei Hong AU - Li, Kangxiao AU - Gill, Harsharn AU - Li, Mingdi AU - Lenon, George Binh PY - 2021 DA - 2021/03/09 TI - Chinese Herbal Medicine for Weight Management: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analyses of Randomised Controlled Trials SP - 3250723 VL - 2021 AB - Objective. This review investigated the effects and safety of Chinese herbal medicine (CHM) formulas on weight management. Methods. Eighteen databases in English, Chinese, Korean, and Japanese were searched from their inceptions to September 2019. The treatment groups included CHM formulations, and the control included placebo, Western medication (WM), and lifestyle intervention (LI), with or without cointerventions (WM and/or LI). Quality of studies was assessed using Cochrane Collaboration’s risk of bias assessment tool. Body weight and body mass index (BMI) were analysed in RevMan v5.4.1 and expressed as mean differences with 95% confidence intervals (CI), while adverse events were expressed as risk ratio with 95% CI. Results. Thirty-nine RCTs were eligible for qualitative analysis, 34 of which were included in the meta-analyses. The majority of studies had a high or unclear risk of selection, performance, and detection bias. Twenty-five CHM studies involving cointerventions revealed that CHM had significant adjunct effects on body weight and BMI at the end of treatment compared to control. No serious adverse events were reported in the CHM groups. Conclusion. CHM indicates a promising adjunct to facilitate WM or lifestyle change for weight management. However, methodological barriers such as lack of allocation concealment and double-blinding may have led to challenges in data synthesis. More rigorously designed RCTs involving cointerventions are warranted. SN - 2090-0708 UR - https://doi.org/10.1155/2021/3250723 DO - 10.1155/2021/3250723 JF - Journal of Obesity PB - Hindawi KW - ER -