Li Jung-Miao, Lin Cheng-Li, Liao Ke-Ru, Liao Chung-Chih
Graduate Institute of Chinese Medicine, College of Chinese Medicine, China Medical University, Taichung 40402, Taiwan.
Department of Chinese Medicine, Show Chwan Memorial Hospital, Changhua 50008, Taiwan.
Evid Based Complement Alternat Med. 2020 Jul 20;2020:7060934. doi: 10.1155/2020/7060934. eCollection 2020.
Postpartum depression (PPD) is one of most common postnatal complications, affecting approximately 10%-15% of women after childbirth annually. Traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) has been gaining popularity as the choice of treatment for PPD in Taiwan. Hence, our aim was to analyze the utilization of TCM among PPD patients in Taiwan. A cross-sectional study was conducted using a random sample of one million beneficiaries selected from the Taiwanese National Health Insurance Research Database. We identified patients with PPD who had received either TCM treatment or non-TCM treatment from the database during 2000-2012. Multivariate logistic regression analysis was used to identify the factors associated with the use of TCM. A total of 653 patients with PPD were enrolled. The majority of patients with PPD were 26-30 years old, lived in a highly urbanized area of Taipei, had a monthly income <20,000 NT$, and were private enterprise employees. Around 52.7% of PPD patients had the motivation to seek TCM services. Younger women, who resided in central and southern Taiwan and who had used TCM one year before PPD diagnosis, were more likely to use TCM services. PPD patients who underwent TCM treatment had a lower overall medical expenditure than non-TCM users. Most TCM users chose simple Chinese herbal medicine. The coexisting factors that made PPD patients to seek TCM services were respiratory or oral infections. We demonstrated the characteristics of those that seek TCM for PPD, which may provide useful insights to health care providers towards resource allocation.
产后抑郁症（PPD）是最常见的产后并发症之一，每年约有10%-15%的产妇受其影响。在台湾，中医作为治疗PPD的选择越来越受欢迎。因此，我们的目的是分析台湾PPD患者对中医的利用情况。我们从台湾国民健康保险研究数据库中随机抽取了100万受益者进行横断面研究。我们从数据库中识别出在2000年至2012年期间接受过中医治疗或非中医治疗的PPD患者。采用多因素逻辑回归分析来确定与使用中医相关的因素。共纳入653例PPD患者。大多数PPD患者年龄在26-30岁之间，居住在台北高度城市化地区，月收入<20,000新台币，是民营企业员工。约52.7%的PPD患者有寻求中医服务的动机。居住在台湾中部和南部且在PPD诊断前一年使用过中医的年轻女性更有可能使用中医服务。接受中医治疗的PPD患者的总体医疗支出低于非中医使用者。大多数中医使用者选择简单的中药。促使PPD患者寻求中医服务的并存因素是呼吸道或口腔感染。我们展示了那些为PPD寻求中医治疗者的特征，这可能为医疗服务提供者在资源分配方面提供有用的见解。
