Lower mortality in male physicians of Chinese medicine than male population in Taiwan.
Studies on the physicians' health have paid less attention on the Chinese medicine than on the western medicine professionals. Like western medicine professionals, Chinese medicine physicians' health condition is critical to the quality of care and patients' safety. They also cared a large number of patients in many Asia societies. However, no data have been reported regarding the health problems associated with Chinese medicine physicians. The aim of this study was to examine the mortality patterns of a cohort consisting of 6109 male physicians of Chinese medicine who were followed from 1991 through 2003 in Taiwan. The analyses of female subjects were not included due to small sample size. We calculated the overall and cause-specific standardized mortality ratios (SMRs) and life expectancy of the study cohort using the death rates of some 11 millions of Taiwanese male population as reference. We found out that physicians of Chinese medicine experienced significantly lower death rate of mortality from all causes (SMR = 0.63, 95% > CI: 0.57, 0.69), from malignant neoplasms (SMR = 0.69, 95% CI: 0.57, 0.82) and from cerebrovascular disease (SMR = 0.53, 95% CI: 0.38, 0.72). Additionally, they have longer life expectancy (ranged from 3 years to approximately 15 years). Our study is crucial to evaluate potential health risks associated with Chinese medicine physicians. Although this study did not reveal elevated death rate among Chinese medicine physicians, researchers and policy makers should not overlook other heath problems that Chinese medicine physicians might have experienced.
Liu
Shu-Hui
SH
Institute of Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences, National Yang Ming University, Taichung, Taiwan.
Wu
Chao-Shun
CS
Lin
Yun-Lian
YL
Hsiao
Yu-Chen
YC
Yang
Chun-Yuh
CY
Sung
Fung-Chang
FC
Li
Chung-Yi
CY
Wu
Trong-Neng
TN
D000328:Adult; D017677:Age Distribution; D015331:Cohort Studies; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008136:Longevity; D008297:Male; D008516:Medicine, Chinese Traditional / Q000523:psychology; D009026:Mortality; D010820:Physicians / Q000523:psychology / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D013624:Taiwan / Q000453:epidemiology