A preliminary study on the medical expenditure of Chinese medicine and integrative medicine treatment for influenza A (H1N1) in the fever clinics.
OBJECTIVE
To analyze the effectiveness of Chinese medicine and integrated Chinese and Western medicine for influenza A (H1N1) in the fever clinics and its relevant expenditure.


METHODS
A prospective survey on the clinical epidemic observation and follow-up was conducted from July 2009 to October 2009 with a self-developed questionnaire whose contents including the clinical data of the confirmed 149 H1N1 cases and their relevant therapeutic expenditure. The patients were assigned to the Chinese medicine group (22 cases treated by Chinese medicine alone) and integrative medicine group (124 cases treated by both Chinese medicine and Western medicine). The data were processed with descriptive analysis, t test and χ (2), and sum-rank test.


RESULTS
The proportion of clinical recovery of Chinese medicine group (81.8%) was higher than that of integrative medicine group (54.8%) with statistical significance (P=0.02). The average fever durations in both groups were 3.5 to 4 days, showing no significant difference (P=0.86). In the comparisons of average cost of Chinese herbs, drugs, therapies, and total cost, those of the Chinese medicine group were lower than those in the integrative group (P=0.01, P=0.00, P=0.00, P=0.00).


CONCLUSIONS
The H1N1 patients in the fever clinic who received Chinese medicine treatment had a higher clinical recovery proportion than those who received integrated Chinese and Western medicine treatment with lower medical cost. However, due to small sample size of the Chinese medicine group in the study, the conclusion needs further confirmation by studies with large sample size.
Guangdong Provincial Hospital of Chinese Medicine, Guangzhou 510102, China. luchuanjian888@vip.sina.com
Chuan-jian
CJ
Lu
Yi
Y
Luo
Hong
H
Zhou
Xiao-lan
XL
Qin
Bo-jun
BJ
Chen
Xue-chun
XC
Tang
Hua
H
Deng
Zhao-hui
ZH
Liang
Ai-hua
AH
Ou
D000328:Adult; D003365:Costs and Cost Analysis; D005260:Female; D005334:Fever / Q000191:economics* / Q000628:therapy / Q000821:virology; D005102:Health Expenditures; D006761:Hospitals; D006801:Humans; D053118:Influenza A Virus, H1N1 Subtype / Q000502:physiology*; D007251:Influenza, Human / Q000191:economics* / Q000628:therapy* / Q000821:virology; D055048:Integrative Medicine / Q000191:economics*; D008297:Male; D008516:Medicine, Chinese Traditional / Q000191:economics*; D013997:Time Factors; D016896:Treatment Outcome