A systematic review and meta-analysis will explore the safety and efficacy of complementary and alternative therapies for ulcerative colitis based on alterations in symptoms, adverse events, clinical efficacy, and quality of life. To provide reliable evidence-based medicine for clinical practice, this study will yield evidence for whether complementary and alternative therapies are valuable for managing ulcerative colitis.

From the establishment of databases to May 2020, the English and Chinese databases will be comprehensively and systematically searched free of language or publication restrictions. The study will include all randomized controlled trials on complementary and alternative therapies for ulcerative colitis.

Screening of the titles, abstracts, full texts will be independently done by two researchers. The data will be extracted, and the bias risk of each study will be evaluated. Pairwise meta-analyses and Bayesian network meta-analyses to the relative outcomes of the efficacy and safety will be determined. STATA and WinBUGs 1.4.3 software will be utilized in this meta-analysis for assessing data.

Thus, evidence will be generated for whether complementary and alternative therapies are advantageous for managing ulcerative colitis.