Use of Chinese medicine among prostate cancer patients in Taiwan: a retrospective longitudinal cohort study.

The National Health Insurance (NHI) covers Western medicine and Chinese medicine (CM) in Taiwan. The present study aimed to investigate the trends and characteristics of CM use among prostate cancer patients before and after diagnosis. A retrospective longitudinal cohort study was carried out using the NHI research database. The present study cohort consisted of 4720 prostate cancer patients diagnosed in 2004. Claims of CM services of these patients between 2003 and 2008 were analyzed. The prevalence of CM use of this cohort was 25.8%, 26.8%, 23.6%, 22.4%, 22.0% and 21.1% in 2003-2008, respectively. Overall, 52.6% of this cohort had ever used CM. In the first year of diagnosis, there was the greatest increase of new CM users (12.1%). The total number of CM users and visits reached the peak in 2004 and decreased in the subsequent years (2005-2008). The average number of CM visits per user was 6.7, 6.7, 7.0, 7.1, 7.3 and 7.2 in 2003-2008, respectively. The most frequently recorded principal diagnosis of CM visits was musculoskeletal diseases (21.4%), symptoms/signs (17.6%) and neoplasms (11.7%). Chinese herbal medicine (75.1%) was the most commonly used, followed by acupuncture/traumatological manipulative therapies (29.7%). Patients using CM before diagnosis tended to be CM users after diagnosis. The increase of CM use over the first year of prostate cancer diagnosis can be primarily attributed to an increase of new CM users, rather than of CM visits per users.