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Study design

This survey follows a Retrospective Treatment Outcome (RTO) design. This method involves everyone. The goal is to gather accurate information about the preventive measures and treatments used, and the occurrence and progression of the disease. Special care is taken to ensure that the disease, preventive measures and treatments are correctly defined. By collecting a large number of questionnaires, the statistical processing of the responses could make it possible to highlight the preventive measures associated with reduced risk of disease, and treatments associated with better outcomes (or recovery).

In the context of the Covid-19 pandemic, preventive measures play a key role. The RTO questionnaire therefore contains a large number of questions related to prevention, with the aim of assessing their effectiveness.

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Objectives

Many questions are open in the context of the Covid-19 pandemic. The primary purpose of this survey is to describe everyone's practices and to associate the occurrence and change in symptoms with these practices.
Thanks to the large number of respondents, such a study can serve as a starting point for future clinical studies. Indeed, if a particular treatment is frequently associated with improvement in symptoms, this survey could make it possible to highlight a promising treatment in order to evaluate its action more precisely through clinical studies.
In terms of prevention, such a study could make it possible to highlight preventive measures associated with an absence of disease, in particular for people at risk, whether through their health or their work.

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Study results

The results of this survey will be published in this website and will lead to scientific publications. Results will not be available for several months, as we need time to process the data.

References

  • Diallo, D., et al., Malaria treatment in remote areas of Mali: use of modern and traditional medicines, patient outcome. Transactions of The Royal Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene, 2006. 100(6): p. 515-520.

  • Graz, B., et al., Screening of traditional herbal medicine: first, do a retrospective study, with correlation between diverse treatments used and reported patient outcome. Journal of Ethnopharmacology, 2005. 101(1-3): p. 338-9.

  • ​Graz, B., M. Willcox, and E. Elisabetsky, Retrospective Treatment-Outcome as a Method of Collecting Clinical Data in Ethnopharmacological Surveys. Ethnopharmacology, 2015: p. 251-262.

  • Graz, B., C. Kitalong, and V. Yano, Traditional local medicines in the republic of Palau and non-communicable diseases (NCD), signs of effectiveness. J Ethnopharmacol, 2015. 161: p. 233-7.

  • Graz, B., et al., Dysmenorrhea: patience, pills or hot-water bottle? Rev Med Suisse, 2014. 10(452): p. 2285-8.

  • Graz, B., et al., Argemone mexicana decoction versus artesunate-amodiaquine for the management of malaria in Mali: policy and public-health implications. Trans. R. Soc. Trop. Med. Hyg., 2009. 104(1): p. 33-41.

  • Kitalong, C., et al., "DAK", a traditional decoction in Palau, as adjuvant for patients with insufficient control of diabetes mellitus type II. J Ethnopharmacol, 2017. 205: p. 116-122.

  • Little, P., et al., Open randomised trial of prescribing strategies in managing sore throat.[see comment]. British Medical Journal, 1997. 314(7082): p. 722-7.

  • Little, P., et al., An internet-delivered handwashing intervention to modify influenza-like illness and respiratory infection transmission (PRIMIT): a primary care randomised trial. Lancet, 2015. 386(10004): p. 1631-9.

  • Seck, S.M., et al., Clinical efficacy of African traditional medicines in hypertension: A randomized controlled trial with Combretum micranthum and Hibiscus sabdariffa. Journal of Human Hypertension, 2017. 32(1): p. 75-81.

  • Willcox Merlin, L., et al., A "reverse pharmacology" approach for developing an anti-malarial phytomedicine. Malar J, 2011. 10 Suppl 1: p. S8.

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