Xiaofeng Zhao
Director of Chinese association of acupuncture
Title: Should complementary therapies be used to lowering blood pressure in adult hypertensive? A grade of quality of evidence and strength of recommendations
Biography
Biography: Xiaofeng Zhao
Abstract
Objective: The purpose of this work is using GRADE approach to rate the quality of evidence in systematic reviews which examined complementary therapies’ efficacy and safety for lowering blood pressure and evaluating the strength of recommendation in order to determine that should complementary therapies be used to lower blood pressure in adult hypertensive.
Method: Six electronic databases and the reference lists were searched for eligible systematic reviews. Characteristics of included reviews, results of meta-analysis, assessment of methodological quality and risk of bias of studies were collected and AMSTAR score were used for rating the methodological quality of included systematic reviews. GRADE approach was used for grading the quality of evidence and strength of recommendations. Evidence used to evaluate the strength of recommendation was only collected from comparisons between complementary therapies and antihypertensive drugs.
Results: 9 interventions were included in the qualitative synthesis. Quality of evidence in all included systematic reviews, were assessed, and they were generally not high. Only systematic reviews of Qigong, massage and acupuncture were used to make recommendation. The rigorous assessment resulted in a high recommendation pertain to Qigong and a weak recommendation to massage, whether they were used alone or in cooperate with other therapies. Acupuncture used alone was recommended to only use in research and used in coordination with antihypertensive drug was given a weak recommendation.
Conclusion: We thought that Qigong could be used to lower blood pressure in clinic, but massage and acupuncture plus anti-hypertensive drug should be used with caution.