title: A nationwide population-based study of traditional Chinese medicine usage in children in Taiwan.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To characterize the application of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) among pediatric patients.
  
  
  METHODS
  This study examined data sets from the National Health Insurance Research Database in Taiwan. Two cohorts, each with one million patients who were randomly sampled from the beneficiaries of the National Health Insurance Program from January 1 to December 31 in 2005 or 2010, were chosen for analysis. Children had at least one TCM outpatient clinical record were defined as TCM users, whereas children who had no TCM outpatient records were defined as non-TCM users.
  
  
  METHODS
  The demographic data, treatment modalities and the disease distributions of the pediatric TCM users were analyzed from two randomly sampled cohorts.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Overall, 22% and 22.5% of the children used TCM in 2005 and 2010, respectively. The utilization rate of TCM increased with age. Herbal remedies were the most commonly used therapeutic approach, followed by manipulative therapy and acupuncture. There was an increasing trend of using herbal remedies (increased from 65.6% to 74.4%) and acupuncture (increase from 7.5% to 11.4%), but there was a markedly decreased use of manipulative therapies from 25.6% to 12.3% from 2005 to 2010. There is an obvious increasing use of TCM due to diseases of the digestive system, skin/subcutaneous tissue and genitourinary system from 2005 to 2010. A further comparison of the prevalence rates between TCM and non-TCM visits indicated that allergic rhinitis, dyspepsia, injury and musculoskeletal diseases, as well as menstrual disorders, were the main diseases that children tended to visit TCM clinics in Taiwan.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Our nationwide population-based study revealed the high prevalence and specific usage patterns of TCM in the pediatric population in Taiwan. The results of this study should provide valuable information for physicians, parents and the government concerning pediatric healthcare.
authors.affiliation: Department of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Center for Traditional Chinese Medicine, Chang Gung Memorial Hospital, Taoyuan 333, Taiwan; Graduate Institute of Traditional Chinese Medicine, School of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Chang Gung University, Taoyuan 333, Taiwan.
authors.forename: Tzu-Ping
authors.initials: TP
authors.lastname: Huang
authors.affiliation: Clinical Informatics and Medical Statistics Research Center, Chang Gung University, Taoyuan 333, Taiwan.
authors.forename: Pi-Hua
authors.initials: PH
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.affiliation: School of Nursing, College of Medicine, Chang Gung University, Taoyuan 333, Taiwan.
authors.forename: Angela Shin-Yu
authors.initials: AS
authors.lastname: Lien
authors.affiliation: Department of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Center for Traditional Chinese Medicine, Chang Gung Memorial Hospital, Taoyuan 333, Taiwan; Graduate Institute of Traditional Chinese Medicine, School of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Chang Gung University, Taoyuan 333, Taiwan.
authors.forename: Shu-Ling
authors.initials: SL
authors.lastname: Yang
authors.affiliation: Department of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Center for Traditional Chinese Medicine, Chang Gung Memorial Hospital, Taoyuan 333, Taiwan; Graduate Institute of Traditional Chinese Medicine, School of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Chang Gung University, Taoyuan 333, Taiwan.
authors.forename: Hen-Hong
authors.initials: HH
authors.lastname: Chang
authors.affiliation: Research Center for Traditional Chinese Medicine, China Medical University Hospital, Taichung 404, Taiwan; Department of Chinese Medicine, China Medical University Hospital, Taichung 404, Taiwan; Department of Medical Research, China Medical University Hospital, Taichung 404, Taiwan; School of Chinese Medicine, China Medical University, Taichung 404, Taiwan. Electronic address: hungrongyen@gmail.com.
authors.forename: Hung-Rong
authors.initials: HR
authors.lastname: Yen
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D008297:Male; D008516:Medicine, Chinese Traditional / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D013624:Taiwan / Q000453:epidemiology
keywords: Children; Complementary and alternative medicine; Pediatrics; Prevalence; Traditional Chinese medicine