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Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews

Oral Astragalus (Huang qi) for preventing frequent episodes of acute respiratory tract infection in children

Overview of attention for article published in Cochrane database of systematic reviews, December 2016
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About this Attention Score

  • In the top 25% of all research outputs scored by Altmetric
  • High Attention Score compared to outputs of the same age (82nd percentile)
  • Average Attention Score compared to outputs of the same age and source

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10 X users
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2 Facebook pages
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1 Wikipedia page

Citations

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198 Mendeley
Title
Oral <i>Astragalus</i> (Huang qi) for preventing frequent episodes of acute respiratory tract infection in children
Published in
Cochrane database of systematic reviews, December 2016
DOI 10.1002/14651858.cd011958.pub2
Pubmed ID
Authors

Guobin Su, Xiankun Chen, Zhuangzhu Liu, Lihong Yang, La Zhang, Cecilia Stålsby Lundborg, Zehuai Wen, Xinfeng Guo, Xindong Qin, Jueyao Liang, Xusheng Liu

Abstract

Acute respiratory tract infections (ARTIs) are common in children and can involve both upper and lower airways. Many children experience frequent ARTI episodes or recurrent respiratory tract infections (RRTIs) in early life, which creates challenges for paediatricians, primary care physicians, parents and carers of children.In China, Astragalus (Huang qi), alone or in combination with other herbs, is used by Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) practitioners in the form of a water extract, to reduce the risk of ARTIs; it is believed to stimulate the immune system. Better understanding of the therapeutic mechanisms of Astragalus may provide insights into ARTI prevention, and consequently reduced antibiotic use. To assess the effectiveness and safety of oral Astragalus for preventing frequent episodes of acute respiratory tract infections (ARTIs) in children in community settings. We searched the Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials (CENTRAL, Issue 12, 2015), MEDLINE (Ovid) (1946 to 31 December 2015), Embase (Elsevier) (1974 to 31 December 2015), AMED (Ovid) (1985 to 31 December 2015), Chinese National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI) (1979 to 31 December 2015) and Chinese Scientific Journals full text database (CQVIP) (1989 to 31 December 2015), China Biology Medicine disc (CBM 1976 to 31 December 2015) and Wanfang Data Knowledge Service Platform (WanFang) (1998 to 31 December 2015). We included randomised controlled trials (RCTs) comparing oral Astragalus as a sole Chinese herbal preparation with placebo to prevent frequent episodes of ARTIs in children. We used standard Cochrane methodological procedures for this review. We assessed search results to identify relevant studies. We planned to extract data using standardised forms. Disagreements were to be resolved through discussion. Risk of bias was to be assessed using the Cochrane 'Risk of bias' tool. We planned to use mean difference (MD) or standardised mean difference (SMD) for continuous data and risk ratio (RR) or odds ratio (OR) to analyse dichotomous data, both with 95% confidence intervals (CIs). We identified 6080 records: 3352 from English language databases, 2724 from Chinese databases, and four from other sources. Following initial screening and deduplication, we obtained 120 full-text papers for assessment. Of these, 21 were not RCTs; 55 did not meet the inclusion criteria because: participants were aged over 14 years; definition was not included for recurrent or frequent episodes;Astragalus preparation was not an intervention; Astragalus preparation was in the formula but was not the sole agent; the Astragalus preparation was not administered orally; or Astragalus was used for treatment rather than prevention of ARTI. A further 44 studies were excluded because they were not placebo-controlled, although other inclusion criteria were fulfilled.No RCTs met our inclusion criteria. We found insufficient evidence to enable assessment of the effectiveness and safety of oral Astragalus as a sole intervention to prevent frequent ARTIs in children aged up to 14 years.

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X Demographics

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Mendeley readers

Mendeley readers

The data shown below were compiled from readership statistics for 198 Mendeley readers of this research output. Click here to see the associated Mendeley record.

Geographical breakdown

Country Count As %
Unknown 198 100%

Demographic breakdown

Readers by professional status Count As %
Student > Master 27 14%
Student > Bachelor 24 12%
Student > Ph. D. Student 15 8%
Researcher 12 6%
Other 11 6%
Other 30 15%
Unknown 79 40%
Readers by discipline Count As %
Medicine and Dentistry 53 27%
Nursing and Health Professions 24 12%
Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology 7 4%
Social Sciences 5 3%
Pharmacology, Toxicology and Pharmaceutical Science 5 3%
Other 17 9%
Unknown 87 44%
Attention Score in Context

Attention Score in Context

This research output has an Altmetric Attention Score of 9. This is our high-level measure of the quality and quantity of online attention that it has received. This Attention Score, as well as the ranking and number of research outputs shown below, was calculated when the research output was last mentioned on 06 October 2021.
All research outputs
#4,247,396
of 25,457,858 outputs
Outputs from Cochrane database of systematic reviews
#6,514
of 11,499 outputs
Outputs of similar age
#74,796
of 416,977 outputs
Outputs of similar age from Cochrane database of systematic reviews
#143
of 234 outputs
Altmetric has tracked 25,457,858 research outputs across all sources so far. Compared to these this one has done well and is in the 83rd percentile: it's in the top 25% of all research outputs ever tracked by Altmetric.
So far Altmetric has tracked 11,499 research outputs from this source. They typically receive a lot more attention than average, with a mean Attention Score of 40.0. This one is in the 43rd percentile – i.e., 43% of its peers scored the same or lower than it.
Older research outputs will score higher simply because they've had more time to accumulate mentions. To account for age we can compare this Altmetric Attention Score to the 416,977 tracked outputs that were published within six weeks on either side of this one in any source. This one has done well, scoring higher than 82% of its contemporaries.
We're also able to compare this research output to 234 others from the same source and published within six weeks on either side of this one. This one is in the 38th percentile – i.e., 38% of its contemporaries scored the same or lower than it.