title: A hospital-based study on the use of alternative medicine in patients with chronic liver and gastrointestinal diseases.
abstract: To determine the extent to which Taiwanese patients use alternative medicine, we interviewed 500 consecutive patients with chronic liver and gastrointestinal disorders at an outpatient-service. Forty-two patients were excluded due to incomplete data. The percentages of patients with chronic liver (102/269, 37.9%) and gastrointestinal (74/189, 39.2%) diseases using alternative medicine were not significantly different (p = 0.70). The patients who used alternative medicine were not statistically different in gender (p = 0.37), age (p = 0.59), education level (p = 0.83), family income (p = 0.90), or occupation (p = 0.72). Only 36% (64/176) of patients informed their doctors of their use of alternative medicine. The kinds of alternative medicine used by the 176 patients included: Chinese/herbal medicine, 169 (96%); acupuncture, 31 (18%); nutritional supplements, 22 (13%); chiropractic, 17 (10%); scratching, 14 (8%); Qigong, 13 (7%); cupping, 13 (7%); and incense ash, 3 (2%). Sixty-six percent (111/169) of patients used Chinese/herbal medicine in addition to Western allopathic medicine. Only 11% (19/169) of them believed that Chinese/herbal medicine had side effects. Our study indicates the use of alternative medicine occurs across all demographic groups in one-third of patients with chronic liver and gastrointestinal diseases at a major general hospital in Taipei. We suggest that the doctors question all patients for history of alternative therapy use.
authors.affiliation: Culver Academies, Culver, Indiana, USA.
authors.forename: Zinger C
authors.initials: ZC
authors.lastname: Yang
authors.forename: Sien-Hung
authors.initials: SH
authors.lastname: Yang
authors.forename: Sien-Sing
authors.initials: SS
authors.lastname: Yang
authors.forename: Ding-Shinn
authors.initials: DS
authors.lastname: Chen
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000367:Age Factors; D002908:Chronic Disease; D000529:Complementary Therapies / Q000191:economics / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D003625:Data Collection; D004493:Education; D005260:Female; D005767:Gastrointestinal Diseases / Q000628:therapy*; D006521:Hepatitis, Chronic / Q000628:therapy*; D029001:Herbal Medicine / Q000191:economics; D006801:Humans; D007182:Income; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009790:Occupations; D011446:Prospective Studies; D012737:Sex Factors; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors; D013624:Taiwan / Q000453:epidemiology