The Therapeutic Effect of Honey on Respiratory Infections: A Systematic Review
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.35516/jmj.v59i1.988Keywords:
cough, honey, respiratory infections, respiratory symptoms, therapeutic effectAbstract
Background In the context of complementary medicine, honey is a product used alongside conventional medical treatments or therapies to enhance their effectiveness or provide additional benefits. Honey has been used for centuries in traditional and complementary medicine for its various health-promoting properties.
Objectives The aim of this systematic review was to analyze studies on the therapeutic use of honey in acute respiratory infections (ARI) and exacerbations of chronic diseases (ECD), and to compare the effect of honey with other traditional treatments/remedies.
Methods literature searches on PubMed, Medline, Scopus, ScopeMed, and Google Scholar were performed to discover the current state of knowledge on the subject and recent publications. Variables were analysed using the full meta-analysis software, version 3 (Biostat, NJ, USA). Variables were analysed to calculate the odds ratio (OR) and standardised mean difference for dichotomous and continuous variables, respectively. Corresponding 95% confidence intervals for effect sizes were also calculated using a fixed-effects model. Mantel-Haenszelen random-effects models were used due to the large number of articles and the presence of significant heterogeneity. Heterogeneity was considered significant with an I2 value greater than 50% or a P value less than 0.01.
Results We found that honey seems to improve symptoms in both children and adults. Studies used from the literature search comprised 43% of pediatric studies; 26% were in an ambulatory setting; 9% were in surgical and 22% were medical. The results showed that honey was associated with a significantly greater reduction in the combined cough symptom score, frequency, and severity of acute infections, and an improvement in forced vital capacity, forced expiratory volume, peak expiratory flow, and respiratory symptoms for exacerbations of chronic diseases. Most of the studies reviewed were less than 10 years old; the comparison of the risk of bias between the studies showed that 48% of the studies on ARI (acute respiratory infections) had a low risk of bias, while this percentage was higher for the studies on exacerbations of chronic diseases (ECD) (68%).
Conclusion Honey probably improves symptoms of respiratory infections, so it is recommended that honey may be a supplement to usual medicines and treatments.
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