ObjectiveTo systematically review the clinical effects of green tea extracts on simple obesity. MethodsSystematic retrieval were conducted in PubMed, The Cochrane Library (Issue 8, 2012), CNKI, VIP, CBM, and WanFang Data to collect the randomized controlled trials (RCTs) on green tea extracts in treating patients with simple obesity. According to the inclusion and exclusion criteria, two reviewers independently screened literature, extracted data, and assessed the methodological quality of the included studies. Meta-analysis was then performed using RevMan 5.0. ResultsA total of 11 RCTs involving 693 patients were included. Results of meta-analysis displayed that compared with the control group, patients in the green tea extracts group significantly had a obvious decrease of body mass (WMD=-0.32, 95%CI-0.46 to-0.17, P < 0.000 1) as well as body mass index (BMI) (WMD=-0.07, 90%CI-0.09 to-0.05, P < 0.000 01) with significant differences. ConclusionCurrent evidence shows that, green tea extracts could effectively treat simple obesity.
ObjectiveTo explore the application of enhanced funnel plots (EFP) and trial sequential analysis (TSA) in robustness assessment of meta-analysis results.MethodsData were extracted from published meta-analysis. The EFP was used to evaluate the robustness of the significance and heterogeneity of the current meta-analysis. The TSA was used to judge the sufficiency of the cumulative sample size of the current meta-analysis and to assess the robustness of conclusions based on current evidence.ResultsThe EFP showed that the meta-analysis results of low-density lipoprotein (LDL) was robust, and the meta-analysis results of triglyceride (TG), total cholesterol (TC) and high-density lipoprotein (HDL) were not stable. The TSA showed that the cumulative sample size of LDL had reached the required information size (RIS), and the current conclusion was stable. The cumulative Z value of TG, TC and HDL neither reached the RIS nor passed through the TSA monitoring boundary or futility boundary, indicating that current conclusions were not robust.ConclusionsThe combination of EFP and TSA can make a comprehensive judgment on the robustness of current meta-analysis results, and provide methodological support in the robustness assessment of results for future systematic reviews and meta-analyses.