| Summary: | 碩士 === 長庚大學 === 中醫學系傳統中醫學 === 102 === Background. Asthma is a common chronic inflammatory airway disease and accounts for severe morbidity and mortality in children. Some patients with asthma often seek complementary therapies such as Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM). To determine the characteristics and prescription patterns of Chinese herbal medicine (CHM) used to treat children, especially those with asthma, we conducted a nationwide population-based pharmacoepidemiologic study.
Methods. First of all, we examined data sets from the National Health Insurance Research Database in Taiwan. Two cohorts, each with one million patients who were randomly sampled from the beneficiaries of the National Health Insurance Program from January 1 to December 31 in 2005 or 2010, were chosen for analysis. The medicine usage, frequency of service and the disease distributions among the pediatric patients were analyzed for two randomly sampled cohorts. Next, we collected and analyzed a cohort of one million patients assembled by a random sampling of beneficiaries of the National Health Insurance Program in Taiwan from January 1, 2002, to December 31, 2010. Children under 18 years of age with newly diagnosed asthma (ICD-9 code 493) were enrolled and categorized according to their use of TCM. Characteristics of the TCM users and non-TCM users in children with asthma were analyzed.
Results. Overall, 22% and 22.5% of the children used TCM in 2005 and 2010, respectively. The utilization rate of TCM increased with age. Herbal remedies were the most commonly used therapeutic approach (representing 65.6% of the total in 2005 and 74.4% in 2010), followed by manipulative therapy and acupuncture. In the cohort of one million patients, we identified 45,833 patients newly diagnosed with asthma to be included in the study. Among the study patients, 57.95% (N=26,585) had used TCM. The most common treatment employed in TCM clinics is CHM (81.9%). Of all CHM, the most commonly prescribed TCM formula for pediatric asthma is Ding-chuan-tang (Panting-Stabilizing Decoction; 26.93%), and the most commonly prescribed single herb for pediatric asthma is Xing-ren (Semen Armeniacae Amarum; 13.54%).
Conclusion. Our study is the first to reveal comprehensive prescription patterns of the use of CHM in the treatment of pediatric asthma. Further research is needed to elucidate the efficacy and safety of CHM for pediatric asthma patients. The results of this study should provide valuable information for physicians, parents and the government concerning pediatric healthcare.
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