Data Sheet 4_Traditional Chinese Medicine for preventing influenza: a systematic review an

19 clinical studies involving 55,183 healthy participants were analyzed to assess the effectiveness and safety of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) for preventing influenza. The meta-analysis, conducted by Haowen Huang and published on figshare in April 2026, found TCM demonstrated potential reductions in influenza and influenza-like illness incidence. The evidence is derived from a systematic review registered with PROSPERO (CRD42024506941).

Use Cases

• Conducting secondary analysis on the efficacy of herbal medicine for infectious disease prevention based on the included study results.
• Assessing methodological quality and evidence certainty in systematic reviews of traditional medicine based on the described GRADE assessment.
• Analyzing safety profiles of preventive health interventions in diverse populations based on the reported adverse event data.
• Designing future clinical trials for influenza prevention based on the identified research gaps and limitations.

Strengths

• Includes data from 55,183 participants across 19 studies, providing a substantial sample size for analysis.
• Reports specific statistical results, including risk ratios and confidence intervals for influenza incidence and adverse events.
• Covers diverse sub-populations, including 600 pregnant women, 226 children, and 31,889 school populations.

Limitations

• The primary data is presented in a 581.1 KB PDF report; underlying tabular study data or individual participant data are not directly available.
• The authors note the confidence in conclusions is limited by the methodological limitations of the included primary studies.
• The evidence certainty is graded as 'very low', which may limit the strength of inferences drawn directly from the meta-analysis.

Provenance

Source

Haowen Huang via figshare.

Collection Method

Systematic review and meta-analysis of clinical studies sourced from PubMed, EMbase, CENTRAL, Web of Science, CNKI, WanFang, CQVIP, and Sinomed.

Time Range

Studies included up to August 14, 2025.

Freshness

Last updated 2026-04-23 05:28:28.

Geography

Studies likely involve global or primarily Chinese populations, but specific geography is not detailed.