Should complementary therapies be used to lowering blood pressure in adult hypertensive? A grade of quality of evidence and strength of recommendations

5^th International Conference and Exhibition on Natural & Alternative Medicine

September 05-07, 2016 Beijing, China

Xiaofeng Zhao

University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, China

Scientific Tracks Abstracts: Altern Integr Med

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 antihypertensive drug should be used with caution.

Biography :

Xiaofeng Zhao has completed her MD at Tianjin University of Traditional Chinese medicine. She is the Chief Doctor of the VIP ward of Acupuncture and Moxibustion in First Teaching Hospital of Tianjin University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, the Professor and the Supervisor of Post-graduate of Tianjin University of Traditional Chinese Medicine. She has been researching on the therapeutic mechanism of stroke and hypertension by acupuncture for decades and published over 50 papers in reputed Chinese and English journals. She is the Director of the council of bloodletting and cupping of Chinese association of acupuncture and the member of the innovation research team of Chinese Ministry of Education.

Email: zhxf67@163.com