Fan Arthur Yin, He Deguang, Gu Sherman, Tian Haihe, Ouyang Hui, Wei Hui, Gong Changzhen, Alemi Sarah Faggert, Zhao Xiaoyin
American TCM Association (ATCMA), Vienna, VA, USA.
McLean Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine, PLC, Vienna, VA, USA.
Med Acupunct. 2020 Oct 1;32(5):310-319. doi: 10.1089/acu.2020.1439. Epub 2020 Oct 19.
Acupuncture and Oriental medicine are widespread, practiced in >183 countries and regions. As such, it has played an important role in the world health care system. However, there are no official statistics available on the number of acupuncture practitioners in China. The aim of this study is to calculate the number ranges of acupuncture practitioners in China in 2018. In total, 33.708 million was used as the total number of patient visits for acupuncture in 2018 in China. This number was calculated using the data released by the National Administration of Traditional Chinese Medicine (China), in which the average daily workload of all acupuncture practitioners in China was 134,832 patient visits. Acupuncture practitioners in China are part of Chinese Medicine doctors (CMDs) at the physician level, called "acupuncture doctors." This number 134,832 was divided by the workload of a single doctor of acupuncture, which was 19.4 or 7.0 patient visits per day. These numbers were from a survey by the authors. There are also the numbers 16.0 or 9.4 patient visits per day; these numbers were calculated from the salary level of acupuncture practitioners at 10,000 Yuan per month (providing the doctor's net income was 30% or 50% in his/her gross income). From these 2 sources, the authors then obtained 2 sets of ranges of acupuncture practitioners in China in 2018. There were 9,927 CMDs in 49 big hospitals, of which 619 were acupuncture practitioners; the ratio of acupuncture practitioners to the whole of all CMDs was 6.23%. Using this ratio multiplied by the whole number of CMDs in 2018, then the number of acupuncture practitioners in China in 2018 could be obtained as well. Calculating based on the workload, the range of acupuncture practitioners in China in 2018 was from 6,950 to 19,262. Calculating based on the salary level, the range was 10,618 to 17,697. Calculating based on the ratio of the number of acupuncture practitioners to the whole population of CMDs, the number was 28,360. The reasonable range of acupuncture practitioners in China in 2018 was 10,618 to 17,697, with a median of 14,157. Considering that some acupuncture practitioners are also engaged in teaching, research, and management, the mentioned number is enlarged by 30% to produce 18,404, which would be reasonable. It was also concluded that the density of acupuncture practitioners was 1.31 per 100,000 residents.
针灸和东方医学广泛传播，在183个以上的国家和地区得到应用。因此，它在世界卫生保健系统中发挥了重要作用。然而，中国没有关于针灸从业者数量的官方统计数据。本研究的目的是计算2018年中国针灸从业者的数量范围。2018年中国针灸门诊总量共3370.8万人次。这个数字是根据国家中医药管理局（中国）发布的数据计算得出的，其中中国所有针灸从业者的日均工作量为134832人次。中国的针灸从业者是医师级别的中医医生的一部分，称为“针灸医生”。用134832除以单个针灸医生的工作量，即每天19.4人次或7.0人次。这些数字来自作者的一项调查。也有每天16.0人次或9.4人次的数据；这些数字是根据针灸从业者每月10000元的工资水平计算得出的（假设医生的净收入占其总收入的30%或50%）。作者从这两个来源得出了2018年中国针灸从业者数量的两组范围。49家大型医院中有9927名中医医生，其中619名是针灸从业者；针灸从业者占所有中医医生总数的比例为6.23%。用这个比例乘以2018年中医医生的总数，也可以得出2018年中国针灸从业者的数量。根据工作量计算，2018年中国针灸从业者的数量范围为6950至19262人。根据工资水平计算，范围为10618至17697人。根据针灸从业者数量与中医医生总数的比例计算，数量为28360人。2018年中国针灸从业者的合理数量范围为10618至17697人，中位数为14157人。考虑到一些针灸从业者还从事教学、研究和管理工作，将上述数字扩大30%得到18404人，这将是合理的。研究还得出结论，针灸从业者的密度为每10万居民1.31人。
