The effect of soy isoflavones and soy isoflavones plus soy protein on
serum concentration of C-reactive protein among postmenopausal women: A
systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials
Abstract
Evidence suggest soy isoflavones might reduce inflammatory biomarkers,
therefore; the objective of this study is to conduct a systematic review
and meta-analysis on randomized controlled trials (RCTs) that assessed
the effect of soy isoflavones on serum concentration of C-reactive
protein (CRP) among postmenopausal women. Literature search was
conducted by searching PubMed, Scopus, ISI Web of Science, Cochrane
Library, and Clinicaltrials.gov up to January 2020. The mean change from
baseline in the CRP concentrations and its SD for both intervention and
comparison groups were used to compute the effect size. The summary of
the overall effects and heterogeneity was estimated by using the
DerSimonian and Laird random effects model. The protocol was registered
with PROSPERO (No. CRD42020166053). This article considered 23 articles
for systematic review and 19 articles for meta-analysis. The overall
effect suggested a non-significant effect of soy isoflavones on serum
CRP concentrations (WMD= 0.08 mg/L, 95% CI: -0.08, 0.24; p=0.302) and
the overall effect of the combination of soy isoflavones plus soy
protein indicated non-significant effect in serum levels of CRP (WMD=
-0.02 mg/L 95% CI: -0.12, 0.08; p=0.715). There was no significant
change in serum levels of CRP in subgroup analysis based on dose, age,
intervention duration, baseline CRP level, sample size, region, quality
assessment, publication year, and health status. Dose response analysis
revealed no association of higher dose of soy isoflavones with
isoflavones effect on CRP levels.