The effects of curcumin supplementation on body weight, body mass index and waist circumference: a systematic review and dose-response meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials

Abstract

Background & Objectives: Inconsistent data are available about the effect of curcumin supplementation on body weight. This systematic review and meta-analysis was done to summarize data from available clinical trials on the effect of curcumin supplementation on body weight, Body Mass Index (BMI), and Waist Circumference (WC).

Methods: PubMed, SCOPUS, Cochrane Library and Google Scholar were searched to find relevant articles up to August 2018. The effect sizes were expressed as weighted mean difference (WMD) and 95% confidence intervals (CI). Between-study heterogeneity was assessed using I². Subgroup analysis was done to find possible sources of heterogeneity.

Results: Totally, 11 studies that enrolled 876 subjects (53% women) were included. Combining effect sizes suggested a significant effect of curcumin administration on body weight (Weighed Mean Difference (WMD): −1.14 kg, 95% CI: −2.16, −0.12, P = 0.02) and BMI (WMD: −0.48 kg/m², 95% CI: −0.78, −0.17, P = 0.002), respectively. However, no significant effect of curcumin supplementation on WC was found (WMD: −1.51 cm, 95% CI: −4.041, 1.003, P = 0.23). Based on subgroup analysis, we found that the effect of curcumin on WC was significant in studies that prescribed ≥1000 mg/d curcumin (P ≤ 0.001), those with the intervention duration of ≥8 weeks (P ≤ 0.001), and those that was performed on overweight subjects (P ≤ 0.001).

Conclusions: We found a significant effect of curcumin supplementation on body weight and BMI, but not on WC. However, the effect of curcumin on WC was significant in studies done on overweight subjects, used ≥1000 mg/d curcumin, and ≥8 weeks of duration.

Keywords:

• Curcumin
• obesity
• body weight
• BMI
• waist circumference
• meta-analysis

Acknowledgments

The authors’ responsibilities were as follows; SMM and AE conceived the study. The literature search and screening data were done by SMM and MMG. Data extraction and quality assessment were performed independently by HKV, MMG, and SMM. SMM, AM and AE analyzed and interpreted data and wrote the manuscript. AE supervised the study. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

Disclosure statement

The authors declared no conflicts of interest.