{"title":"Traditional Chinese medicine in treating Corona Virus Disease 2019: a systematic review and cost-effectiveness analysis","authors":"T. Shao, Ke Wang, Xing Liao, Wenxi Tang","doi":"10.54844/hd.2022.0287","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT \nBackground: Currently, corona virus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has infected 633,601,048 people worldwide according to World Health Organization, which leads to huge disease burden. A considerable number of trials of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) have been carried out and have shown the efficacy of TCM in the treatment of COVID-19, but their cost-effectiveness has not been studied, especially in China. Therefore, we plan to perform a systematic review and cost-effectiveness analysis to explore the cost-effectiveness of using TCM in treating COVID-19. \nMethods: A systematic review based on previously published secondary data from randomized controlled trials and observational studies which included TCM as one of the interventions for patients with COVID-19 will be performed. Patients with COVID-19 will be classified into five specific groups (patients without diagnosis; patients with mild, moderate, severe and critical symptoms). TCM versus western medicine on both effectiveness outcomes(cure rate and survival rate) and utility outcome(quality-adjusted life years) will be evaluated. A decision tree model will be established taking the perspective of Chinese health care system since the costs were paid by the Chinese government. Cumulative costs, Qalys, and incremental cost-effectiveness ratio will be selected as the outcome indicator. Sensitivity analysis will also be conducted to evaluate the impact of parameter uncertainty on the base-case analyses results. We will present results at various willingness-to-pay thresholds using a cost-effectiveness acceptability curve. \nDiscussion We hope to demonstrate the cost-effectiveness of TCM, see an improvement in the patients' quality of life, achieve a improvement in the cure rate and survival rate of COVID-19. If TCM is cost-effectiveness, it could be applied to clinical practice decision making. \nEthics and dissemination: Ethics approval is not required for the current study. Because the data used in this study is just the re-use of data which are already in the public domain. The results will be disseminated to general public, clinicians, academics and policy makers. \nRegistration number: CRD42021228887 \nKeywords: Traditional Chinese medicine; Corona Virus Disease 2019; decision tree model; systematic review; cost-effectiveness analysis","PeriodicalId":430023,"journal":{"name":"Health Decision","volume":"55 1 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0000,"publicationDate":"2023-03-17","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Health Decision","FirstCategoryId":"1085","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.54844/hd.2022.0287","RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":null,"ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"","JCRName":"","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
ABSTRACT
Background: Currently, corona virus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has infected 633,601,048 people worldwide according to World Health Organization, which leads to huge disease burden. A considerable number of trials of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) have been carried out and have shown the efficacy of TCM in the treatment of COVID-19, but their cost-effectiveness has not been studied, especially in China. Therefore, we plan to perform a systematic review and cost-effectiveness analysis to explore the cost-effectiveness of using TCM in treating COVID-19.
Methods: A systematic review based on previously published secondary data from randomized controlled trials and observational studies which included TCM as one of the interventions for patients with COVID-19 will be performed. Patients with COVID-19 will be classified into five specific groups (patients without diagnosis; patients with mild, moderate, severe and critical symptoms). TCM versus western medicine on both effectiveness outcomes(cure rate and survival rate) and utility outcome(quality-adjusted life years) will be evaluated. A decision tree model will be established taking the perspective of Chinese health care system since the costs were paid by the Chinese government. Cumulative costs, Qalys, and incremental cost-effectiveness ratio will be selected as the outcome indicator. Sensitivity analysis will also be conducted to evaluate the impact of parameter uncertainty on the base-case analyses results. We will present results at various willingness-to-pay thresholds using a cost-effectiveness acceptability curve.
Discussion We hope to demonstrate the cost-effectiveness of TCM, see an improvement in the patients' quality of life, achieve a improvement in the cure rate and survival rate of COVID-19. If TCM is cost-effectiveness, it could be applied to clinical practice decision making.
Ethics and dissemination: Ethics approval is not required for the current study. Because the data used in this study is just the re-use of data which are already in the public domain. The results will be disseminated to general public, clinicians, academics and policy makers.
Registration number: CRD42021228887
Keywords: Traditional Chinese medicine; Corona Virus Disease 2019; decision tree model; systematic review; cost-effectiveness analysis