Moxibustion for diarrhea in COVID-19: A protocol for systematic review and meta-analysis

Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is an acute respiratory infectious disease that is often accompanied by diarrhea, patients with symptoms such as diarrhea are more likely to develop severe pneumonia, while diarrhea is the most prominent among atypical symptoms. The incidence of diarrhea in COVID-19 patients is 2.0% to 49.5%. Moxibustion has been proven to have a therapeutic effect on diarrhea; however, there is no high-quality evidence on moxibustion for diarrhea in COVID-19 patients. This study was designed to evaluate the effectiveness and safety of moxibustion for the treatment of diarrhea in patients with COVID-19.Randomized controlled trials from December 2019 to December 2021 will be included without restrictions on language or publication date. PubMed, EMBASE, Cochrane Library, Web of Science, Chinese Biomedical Databases, China National Knowledge Infrastructure, Wanfang database, and VIP database will be searched. Two researchers will independently select studies, extract data and evaluate study quality. Cochrane risk of bias tool for randomized trials will be used to assess the risk of bias of included studies. Statistical analyses will be performed using the Review Manager V.5.3 and stata 14.0.The results of this meta-analysis will be submitted to a peer-reviewed journal for publication.This study will provide evidence for whether moxibustion therapy is beneficial to the treatment of diarrhea in COVID-19.Ethical approval is not required for this study. The systematic review will be published in a peer-reviewed journal, presented at conferences, and shared on social media platforms. This review would be disseminated in a peer-reviewed journal or conference presentations.CRD42022302933.