Traditional Chinese medicine for adults with overweight and obesity: a protocol for an umbrella review and meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials (Preprint)

BACKGROUND Many of these systematic reviews have focused on a single modality of TCM for adults with overweight and obesity. OBJECTIVE To compare the efficacy of different traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) therapies for for adults with overweight and obesity and provide a higher level of evidence in the form of umbrella review of systematic reviews and meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials. METHODS Systematic reviews (SRs) and meta analyses (MAs) of TCM for adults with overweight and obesity will be identified and retrieved in databases of Wanfang, China National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI), Chinese Biological Medicine (CBM), PubMed, Embase, and Cochrane Database of Systematic Review (CDSR) from their establishment to March 2025. The included SRs/MAs reported body mass index (BMI), body weight, waist circumference (WC), hip circumference (HC), waist-to-hip ratio (WHR), low-density lipoprotein cholesterol, total cholesterol, triglycerides, fasting plasma glucose, fasting insulin, homeostatic model assessment of insulin resistance, and blood pressure will be extracted independently by two authors. In cases of disagreement, a consensus will be reached by consulting a third author. GRADE (Grading of Recommendations, Assessment, Development, and Evaluations) analysis using the guideline development tool and AMSTAR-2 (A Measure Tool to Assess Systematic Reviews-2) will be used to evaluate the methodological quality of SRs and MAs, respectively. The meta-analysis will be conducted by R studio (metaumbrella packages) under the random-effects model, as well as assessment of heterogeneity, tests for small-study effects, tests for excess statistical significance, and Jackknife leave-one-out analysis. P value <0.05 will be considered statistically significant. RESULTS No Applicable CONCLUSIONS No Applicable CLINICALTRIAL PROSPERO (CRD42024551788)