Complementary and alternate therapies (CAM) in the management of novel Corona virus (COVID-19): protocol for systematic review and meta-analysis

Background: In December 2019, a new corona-virus (COVID-19) infection broke out in the Chinese province of Wuhan. With the rampant spread of virus around the world, COVID-19 was declared as a global pandemic in the following year. Many complementary and alternate therapies (CAM) were used experimentally alongside conventional treatments for effective management of COVID-19. Aim: This paper presents a protocol for the systematic review and meta-analysis of the studies with various CAM therapies for the management of COVID-19 pneumonia. Methods: Electronic databases such as PubMed, Embase, Scopus, and the Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials (CENTRAL) could be used for searching the relevant trials and studies with keywords related to COVID-19 and CAM therapies. Two independent reviewers would screen a list of all the trials and extract the relevant variables. Additionally, we would also evaluate the risk of bias of the selected studies. Review Manager software (RevMan; version 5.3.5) and R statistical software (version 3.6.1) would be used for the data analysis. Results: Risk ratio (RR) would be estimated for dichotomous outcomes, and the mean differences (MD) would be measured for continuous outcomes. Heterogeneity with the help of I 2 statistic would be used for the assessment of inconsistency across studies with the level of significance at P< 0.10. We would also assess publication bias using funnel plots and Egger’s test for the selected studies. Conclusion: The protocol for systematic review and meta-analysis would investigate the beneficial and possible adverse effects of various CAM therapies in the prevention and management of COVID-19 associated pneumonia.