ObjectiveTo systematically evaluate the efficacy of probiotics in preventing antibiotic-associated diarrhea (AAD) in aged people. MethodsPubMed, Web of Science, the Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews, the Cochrane Controlled Trials Register, CNKI, VIP, and WANFANG electronic databases were searched for studies published, and references of included studies and reviews were screened from database inception to April 2014. Only randomized, controlled trials involving patients older than 65 years were included. Furthermore, only the trials which combined antibiotic administration and probiotic therapy for the prevention of AAD and Jadad score >3 were extracted. ResultsA total of eight articles containing 3 680 subjects (1 843 in the probiotic group, 1 837 people in the control group) met the inclusion criteria. Meta-analysis showed that there was no significant difference in the risk of antibiotic-associated diarrhea (AAD) between probiotics and control groups[RR=0.76, 95%CI (0.51, 1.13), P=0.17]. Further subgroup analysis found that compared with the control group, saccharomyces[RR=1.24, 95%CI (0.70, 2.19), P=0.46], lactobacillus[RR=0.59, 95%CI (0.31, 1.13), P=0.11], multi-probiotics combination[RR=0.58, 95%CI (0.24, 1.41), P=0.23] in the probiotics group were not significantly different. ConclusionThere is no evidence to support that probiotics can reduce the risk of AAD among aged people administrated with antibiotics therapy.