Hon Kam-Lun Ellis, Ma Kwok-Chiu, Wong Yin, Leung Ting Fan, Fok Tai-Fai
Department of Pediatrics, Chinese University of Hong Kong, Prince of Wales Hospital, Hong Kong SAR, China.
J Dermatolog Treat. 2005 Aug;16(3):154-7. doi: 10.1080/09546630510038938.
Use of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) for various paediatric diseases has been popular. Often, parents or caregivers believe that herbs possess therapeutic effects without any harmful consequence. This fallacy is especially prevalent in the caregivers of children with chronic diseases such as atopic dermatitis (AD). We interviewed 227 consecutive children with AD to assess the attitudes of the caregivers to TCM use, based on a 14-item questionnaire. Of these respondents, 67 (30%) admitted that the child had been given TCM in the past 12 months, one-third of these were currently taking TCM and one-quarter had used TCM for 6 months or more. TCM was prescribed by a Chinese medicine practitioner in 63 patients (94%), and herbal tea/soup was the commonest TCM taken. The majority (94%) had not been told of any possible side effects of TCM. Nearly 60% thought that TCM helped to improve their child's AD. Respondents for children with severe eczema were less likely to think that TCM helped to improve their child's eczema than those with mild or moderate eczema. TCM use was not associated with parental ages or 'grandparent as caregiver' but 'severe AD' was an independent factor for TCM use (OR 3.24, 95% CI 1.67-6.31; p = 0.0003).
使用传统中药（TCM）治疗各种儿科疾病已很普遍。通常，父母或照顾者认为草药具有治疗作用且没有任何有害后果。这种错误观念在患有慢性疾病（如特应性皮炎，AD）儿童的照顾者中尤为普遍。我们基于一份包含14个条目的问卷，对227名连续就诊的AD患儿进行了访谈，以评估照顾者对使用TCM的态度。在这些受访者中，67人（30%）承认孩子在过去12个月内服用过TCM，其中三分之一目前正在服用TCM，四分之一使用TCM达6个月或更长时间。63名患者（94%）的TCM是由中医师开的，草药茶/汤是最常服用的TCM。大多数人（94%）未被告知TCM的任何可能副作用。近60%的人认为TCM有助于改善孩子的AD。与轻度或中度湿疹患儿的照顾者相比，重度湿疹患儿的照顾者不太可能认为TCM有助于改善孩子的湿疹。使用TCM与父母年龄或“由祖父母作为照顾者”无关，但“重度AD”是使用TCM的一个独立因素（比值比3.24，95%置信区间1.67 - 6.31；p = 0.0003）。
