Effect of probiotics, prebiotics and synbiotics for chronic bronchitis or chronic obstructive pulmonary disease: A protocol for systematic review and meta-analysis

BACKGROUND: Probiotics, prebiotics and synbiotics have been widely used in the treatment of respiratory diseases, but their clinical efficacy for treating chronic bronchitis (CB) or chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) has not been well studied. METHODS: The following electronic databases will be searched for eligible randomized controlled trials: the Cochrane Library, EMBASE, MEDLINE, PubMed, Scopus, the Web of Science, the China National Knowledge Infrastructure, the Wanfang database, and the China Science and Technology Journal database (VIP Information Network). We will search these electronic databases weekly and extract relevant data from their inception dates until September 30, 2020. Risk of publication bias will be evaluated by the Cochrane Handbook for Systematic Reviews of Interventions. Data synthesis will be conducted using Review Manager (RevMan) version 5.3 software. Sensitivity and quality of evidence analyses will be conducted. RESULTS: This systematic review and meta-analysis will provide a high-quality synthesis from existing evidence for estimating the efficacy and safety of probiotics, prebiotics and synbiotics in the treatment of CB or COPD. CONCLUSION: This systematic review and meta-analysis will provide reliable and accurate evidence to guide the use of probiotics, prebiotics and synbiotics in the treatment of CB or COPD. REGISTRATION OSF REGISTRATION NUMBER: DOI 10.17605/OSF.IO/SP35M.