Chinese Medicine Utilization in Chinese Medicine Hospitals
A study was conducted to document clinical use of Traditional
Chinese Medicine (TCM) for chronic conditions in all TCM hospitals in a Chinese
province and to recommend treatments most in need of evaluation for use in
community health centers. Design: A cross-sectional survey was conducted in the
summer of 2010. It included 119 of 132 TCM hospitals in Hubei Province, China.
TCM physicians were asked to recommend specific TCM treatments for common
chronic conditions. Nine types of chronic conditions recommended more than 3.7
times (mean of frequencies of chronic conditions) are included in this
analysis. Frequency of each TCM treatment and the number of visits by type of
chronic conditions were calculated. Results: The total number of
recommendations by TCM physicians was 411. For seven types of treatments, six
were recommended for musculoskeletal pain, five for soft tissue injuries, four
for visceral pain and fractures, three for stroke and asthma, two for
hemorrhoids, and one for hypertension. The most frequently recommended
treatments for specific conditions include orally ingested herbs for visceral
pain (n=3), type 2 diabetes (n=5), and hypertension (n=7); herbs for external
use for soft tissue injuries (n=10), asthma (n=6), and hemorrhoids (n=8);
acupuncture for musculoskeletal pains (n=43) and for stroke (n=10); and Chinese
external fixation for fractures (n=24). The number of visits for recommended
treatments per year of was 671,759. The most frequently recommended treatments
for specific chronic conditions have most visits, except for chronic conditions
such as musculoskeletal pains, visceral pains, soft tissue injuries, and
asthma. Conclusions: Patients with musculoskeletal pain have more treatment
options than other patients. Herbal medicine is the option most commonly used
for chronic conditions. These treatments for these conditions should be
targeted for further evaluation of effectiveness and, only if found effective,
considered for use in primary care settings.
Source: Cai Y,
Boyd DL,
Coeytaux RR,
Østbye T,
Wu B,
Mao Z.
Treatment of
Chronic Conditions with Traditional Chinese Medicine: Findings from Traditional
Chinese Medicine Hospitals in Hubei, China. J Altern
Complement Med. 2014 Dec 18.
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