This systematic review and network meta-analysis looked at data from 2,168 patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. The researchers grouped these patients based on Traditional Chinese Medicine constitution types to see how these categories related to health outcomes.
The study found that the top two constitution types associated with a higher smoking index were yang-deficiency and qi-deficiency. These same two types were also linked to lower ratios of forced expiratory volume in 1 sec and forced vital capacity. Additionally, the top three constitution types connected to lower predicted lung function included yang-deficiency, blood-stasis, and qi-deficiency.
Patients with yang-deficiency, blood-stasis, and qi-deficiency constitutions also showed a higher number of acute exacerbations per year and higher scores on the COPD assessment test. The analysis did not report any safety concerns or adverse events. These results suggest that understanding a patient's constitution type could help clinicians make better decisions regarding prevention, evaluation, treatment, and rehabilitation.