IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jijerp/v12y2015i8p9639-9657d54256.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Prevalence of Polyherbacy in Ambulatory Visits to Traditional Chinese Medicine Clinics in Taiwan

Author

Listed:
  • Ming-Hwai Lin

    (Department of Family Medicine, Taipei Veterans General Hospital, No. 201, Sec. 2, Shi-Pai Road, Taipei 112, Taiwan
    School of Medicine, National Yang-Ming University, No. 155, Sec. 2, Linong Street, Taipei 112, Taiwan)

  • Hsiao-Ting Chang

    (Department of Family Medicine, Taipei Veterans General Hospital, No. 201, Sec. 2, Shi-Pai Road, Taipei 112, Taiwan
    School of Medicine, National Yang-Ming University, No. 155, Sec. 2, Linong Street, Taipei 112, Taiwan)

  • Chun-Yi Tu

    (School of Medicine, National Yang-Ming University, No. 155, Sec. 2, Linong Street, Taipei 112, Taiwan
    Department of Family Medicine, Taipei Veterans General Hospital, Taoyuan branch, No. 100, Sec. 3, Cheng Kung Road, Tao Yuan 330, Taiwan)

  • Tzeng-Ji Chen

    (Department of Family Medicine, Taipei Veterans General Hospital, No. 201, Sec. 2, Shi-Pai Road, Taipei 112, Taiwan
    School of Medicine, National Yang-Ming University, No. 155, Sec. 2, Linong Street, Taipei 112, Taiwan)

  • Shinn-Jang Hwang

    (Department of Family Medicine, Taipei Veterans General Hospital, No. 201, Sec. 2, Shi-Pai Road, Taipei 112, Taiwan
    School of Medicine, National Yang-Ming University, No. 155, Sec. 2, Linong Street, Taipei 112, Taiwan)

Abstract

Patients with a polyherbal prescription are more likely to receive duplicate medications and thus suffer from adverse drug reactions. We conducted a population-based retrospective study to examine the items of Chinese herbal medicine (CHM) per prescription in the ambulatory care of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) in Taiwan. We retrieved complete TCM ambulatory visit datasets for 2010 from the National Health Insurance database in Taiwan. A total of 59,790 patients who received 313,482 CHM prescriptions were analyzed. Drug prescriptions containing more than five drugs were classified as polyherbal prescriptions; 41.6% of patients were given a polyherbal prescription. There were on average 5.2 ± 2.5 CHMs: 2.3 ± 1.1 compound herbal formula items, and 3.0 ± 2.5 single Chinese herb items in a single prescription. Approximately 4.6% of patients were prescribed 10 CHMs or more. Men had a lower odds ratio (OR) among polyherbal prescriptions (OR = 0.96, 95% confidence interval [CI] 0.92–0.99), and middle-aged patients (35–49 years) had the highest frequency of polyherbal prescription (OR = 1.19, 95% CI = 1.13–1.26). Patients with neoplasm, skin and subcutaneous tissue disease, or genitourinary system disease were more likely to have a polyherbal prescription; OR = 2.20 (1.81–2.67), 1.65 (1.50–1.80), and 1.52 (1.40–1.64), respectively. Polyherbal prescription is widespread in TCM in Taiwan. Potential herb interactions and iatrogenic risks associated with polyherbal prescriptions should be monitored.

Suggested Citation

  • Ming-Hwai Lin & Hsiao-Ting Chang & Chun-Yi Tu & Tzeng-Ji Chen & Shinn-Jang Hwang, 2015. "Prevalence of Polyherbacy in Ambulatory Visits to Traditional Chinese Medicine Clinics in Taiwan," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 12(8), pages 1-19, August.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:12:y:2015:i:8:p:9639-9657:d:54256
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/12/8/9639/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/12/8/9639/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Ta-Peng Wu & Cheng-Hung Tsai & Yu-Ting Su & Chu-Chiao Wang & Tzeng-Ji Chen & Ching-Mao Chang & Fang-Pey Chen, 2018. "The Evaluation of Professional Divisions of Traditional Chinese Medicine in Taiwan through Patient Visit Records of 2012," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 15(9), pages 1-13, September.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:12:y:2015:i:8:p:9639-9657:d:54256. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.