Zhao Qi, Guo Ran, Fan Zixuan, Hu Linlin, Hu Zhimin, Liu Yuanli
School of Health Policy and Management, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences & Peking Union Medical College, Beijing, 100730, People's Republic of China.
Patient Prefer Adherence. 2023 Jan 24;17:227-237. doi: 10.2147/PPA.S398644. eCollection 2023.
Although complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) is used around the world, there has been a lack of comprehensive understanding of major factors affecting patients' decision to use CAM. This study aimed to describe the preferences of Chinese patients regarding what conditions they will use Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) for and to determine the factors associated with these preferences.
This study used data from the China Healthcare Improvement Evaluation Survey in January 2021, a national cross-sectional survey conducted at 163 hospitals across 31 provinces. A convenient sampling method was used to conduct the patient satisfaction survey, and 28,993 patients in an ambulatory setting constituted our study sample on TCM use. A multiple-choice question regarding TCM listed nine medical conditions and asked the patient about what condition he/she and his/her family members would use TCM. In addition to descriptive statistics, we used a binary logistic regression model to investigate factors affecting the likelihood of patients' decision to use TCM for multiple conditions.
The majority of the surveyed patients (76.3%) would use TCM for the purpose of disease prevention, and more than half (67.3%) for multiple medical/health conditions, 34.0% for dealing with chronic diseases, 33.0% for common symptoms, 26.9% for rehabilitation, and 26.3% for sleeping disorder. Female and older patients, as well as patients with a higher education level, urban residency, and higher family income, were found to be associated with a higher probability of using TCM for multiple conditions than their counterparts (odd ratios [OR]>1, <0.05).
This study reveals a preference for TCM in a large sample of Chinese patients, especially used for prevention. Generally, patients with a higher socioeconomic status had a more positive attitude toward TCM.
尽管补充和替代医学（CAM）在全球范围内都有应用，但对于影响患者使用CAM决策的主要因素仍缺乏全面了解。本研究旨在描述中国患者对于使用中医药（TCM）治疗何种疾病的偏好，并确定与这些偏好相关的因素。
本研究使用了2021年1月中国医疗保健改进评估调查的数据，这是一项在31个省份的163家医院进行的全国性横断面调查。采用方便抽样方法进行患者满意度调查，28993名门诊患者构成了我们关于中医药使用的研究样本。一个关于中医药的多项选择题列出了九种医疗状况，并询问患者他/她以及他/她的家庭成员会使用中医药治疗何种状况。除了描述性统计，我们还使用二元逻辑回归模型来研究影响患者针对多种状况决定使用中医药可能性的因素。
大多数接受调查的患者（76.3%）会为预防疾病而使用中医药，超过一半（67.3%）会用于多种医疗/健康状况，34.0%用于治疗慢性病，33.0%用于缓解常见症状，26.9%用于康复，26.3%用于治疗睡眠障碍。与对照组相比，女性、老年患者以及教育水平较高、居住在城市且家庭收入较高的患者，针对多种状况使用中医药的可能性更高（比值比[OR]>1，P<0.05）。
本研究揭示了大量中国患者对中医药的偏好，尤其是用于预防。总体而言，社会经济地位较高的患者对中医药的态度更为积极。
