Exploring the Potential Impact of Ginger Consumption on the Duration of COVID-19 Recovery: A Propensity Score Matching using Random Forest

Abstract

Ginger has been recognized by the Indonesian population as a potential alternative remedy for COVID-19, despite the absence of a definitive cure. However, evaluating the impact of ginger consumption on COVID-19 recovery among survivors poses ethical challenges. To address this, a statistical method known as propensity score matching was employed to balance the comparison between survivors who consumed ginger and those who did not. The study aimed to statistically assess the impact of ginger consumption on recovery duration, using propensity score matching and a random forest. Variables such as sex, age, isolation type, vaccination history, symptoms, and COVID wave were included in the analysis. The study resulted in a significant reduction in bias (33.5 percent) and revealed no statistically significant impact.