Focus on Alternative and Complementary Therapies
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Focus Alternat Complement Ther©2005 Pharmaceutical Press
Focus Altern Complement Ther 2004; 9: 22
The purpose of this sub-study of a large collaborative asthma intervention study was to explore the use of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) and its impact for schoolchildren with asthma in Beijing, China.
Medication use data were provided by 211 parents whose children (8.7 ± 1.3 years old) were identified with asthma. Descriptive analyses, ANOVA, chi-square and multiple linear and logistic regression analyses were used to investigate the association between TCM use and various asthma-related outcomes.
A total of 102 children (48%) used TCM. Significantly more children using only Western medicine (WM) reported use of bronchodilator medications (31% vs. 17%, P < 0.01), had hospitalisations (19% vs. 9%, P = 0.05) and had emergency department (ED) visits (42% vs. 18%, P < 0.01) during the past 12 months compared to children using TCM. TCM use was not associated with a child’s age, sex, asthma severity or symptoms. There were no identified cases of severe asthma in this population. In the adjusted models, children with mild intermittent asthma using only WM were three times more likely to have a higher number of ED visits (RR = 3.00, P < 0.05) and twice as likely to report symptoms (RR = 2.04, P < 0.05) compared with children using TCM. Children using only WM were over five times more likely to use bronchodilators compared with children using TCM regardless of asthma severity. These differences were adjusted for age, sex and BMI.
In this group of schoolchildren in Beijing, TCM was mostly used in combination with WM, and was associated with reduced symptoms and fewer visits to the ED. Further research in this population needs to examine how TCM is being prescribed, used and has an impact on health status relative to WM.
The work presented here was supported by the Thrasher Fund award #02904-7.
