The Qigong Wuqinxi for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease Protocol for a systematic review and meta-analysis

Background: Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is a chronic and progressive disease that represents an important public health challenge nowadays. Despite the growing number of studies assessing the rehabilitation outcome of Wuqinxi for COPD, their many variables and observations are often explored with a relatively small sample size, accordingly maybe lead to potential false-positive results. The aim of this systematic review and meta-analysis is to evaluate the rehabilitation efficacy of Wuqinxi for COPD. Methods: A detailed search for articles up to June 2019 will be performed to identify randomized controlled trials for Wuqinxi in COPD. The following database will be used: PUBMED, Embase, Scopus, Web of Science, Google Scholar, Cochrane Library, Sino Med, Chinese National Knowledge Infrastructure, Chinese Science and Technology Periodicals Database, and Wanfang Database. Grey literature will be explored and the selection of studies, data extraction and validation will performed independently by 2 reviewers using predefined selection criteria and quality indicators. Stata V. 13.0 and Review manager 5.3 software will be used for data synthesis, sensitivity analysis, subgroup analysis, and risk of bias assessment. We will use the grading of recommendations assessment, development, and evaluation system to assess the quality of evidence. Results: This research will update previous evidence summaries and provide a quantitative and standardized assessment of the rehabilitation efficacy of Wuqinxi for COPD. Conclusion: This systematic review will generate the latest evidence for determining whether Wuqinxi has a positive rehabilitation effect for COPD. PROSPERO registration number: PROSPERO CRD 42019120960.