Abstract: Objective To systematically evaluate the effectiveness and safety of acupoint application in the treatment of children with cough variant asthma.Methods Relevant literatures on acupoint applications in treating cough variant asthma(CVA) in children were retrieved from electronic databases, including China National Knowledge Infrastructure(CNKI), WanFang Database , Chongqing VIP information Chinese scientific journals database(VIP), Chinese Biomedical Literature database(CBM), PubMed, Cochrane Library and EMbase database, from their inception till February 2020. Meta-analysis was conducted after extracting related data from the included studies.Results In total, 18 randomized controlled trials(RCTs) involving 1 407 children were selected for the meta-analysis. The analysis indicated that the total effective rate of acupoint applications in the treatment group was better than that in the control group. In terms of the pulmonary function test and ACT scores, the forced expiratory volume in one second(FEV1), forced expiratory volume in one second/forced vital capacity(FEV1/FVC), peak expiratory flow rate(PEF) and ACT scores were better in the treatment group than in the control group. Concerning immune function, IgM, IgG, and IgA values in the treatment group were significantly higher than those in the control group, while IgE values of treatment group were significantly lower. In terms of efficacy in the long run, the treatment group had lower rate of recurrent cough variant asthma and shorter duration spent in eliminating recurrent cough as compared to the control group. The differences in the above research results were statistically significant(P<0.05).Conclusion Acupoint applications can improve the overall efficacy of treatment in children with CVA, improve pulmonary ventilation, boost immunity, and reduce recurrence rate and shorten the duration spent in eliminating recurrent cough.

Key words:

Cough variant asthma, Acupoint application；Randomized controlled trials, Meta-analysis, Children