Time Trend Analysis of the Prevalence and Incidence of Diagnosed Asthma and Traditional Chinese Medicine Use among Adults in Taiwan from 2000 to 2011: A Population-Based Study.
BACKGROUND
The aim of this study was to determine the annual trends of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) use for prevalent and incident asthmatic adults in Taiwan from 2000 to 2011. The annual prevalence and incidence of asthma in adults among subgroups of sociodemographic factors were also investigated.


METHODS
A population-based study was conducted using a random sample with one million beneficiaries of all residents aged ≥18 years enrolled in the National Health Insurance program. Adults diagnosed with asthma were identified from the National Health Insurance Research Database. The annual prevalence and incidence of asthma in the adult population were estimated by using International Classification of Diseases, Ninth Revision, Clinical Modification diagnostic codes to identify relevant cases from 2000 to 2011.


RESULTS
The number of annual prevalent cases of diagnosed asthma increased from 56,885 in 2000 to 101,535 in 2011. The prevalence increased significantly on annual basis, whereas the incidence rate fluctuated over time. The prevalence of TCM use by adults with asthma decreased significantly (p<0.05), from 38.58% in 2000 to 29.26% in 2011. The number of annual incident cases of diagnosed asthma decreased from 3,896 in 2000 to 2,684 in 2011. TCM use rates in asthma incident adults decreased significantly (p<0.05), from 54.24% in 2000 to 38.19% in 2011.


CONCLUSIONS
The prevalence of TCM utilization is high among adults with asthma in Taiwan. However, our study demonstrated a substantial decrease in the annual prevalence of TCM use by prevalent and incident asthmatic adults in Taiwan from 2000 to 2011. In addition, the prevalence of TCM use was higher among incident cases, compared with those with prevalent cases.
Graduate Institute of Chinese Medicine, College of Chinese Medicine, China Medical University, Taichung, Taiwan; Tai-An Hospital, Taichung, Taiwan.
Yi-Chun
YC
Ma
Department of Family Medicine, China Medical University Hospital, Taichung, Taiwan; School of Medicine, College of Medicine, China Medical University, Taichung, Taiwan; Department of Medical Research, China Medical University Hospital, Taichung, Taiwan.
Cheng-Chieh
CC
Lin
Graduate Institute of Biostatistics, China Medical University, Taichung, Taiwan.
Sing-Yu
SY
Yang
Management Office for Health Data, China Medical University Hospital, Taichung, Taiwan.
Hsuan-Ju
HJ
Chen
Graduate Institute of Biostatistics, China Medical University, Taichung, Taiwan; Department of Healthcare Administration, College of Medical and Health Science, Asia University, Taichung, Taiwan.
Tsai-Chung
TC
Li
Graduate Institute of Chinese Medicine, College of Chinese Medicine, China Medical University, Taichung, Taiwan.
Jaung-Geng
JG
Lin
D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D001249:Asthma / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000628:therapy*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D015994:Incidence; D008297:Male; D008516:Medicine, Chinese Traditional / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D008875:Middle Aged; D015999:Multivariate Analysis; D009313:National Health Programs / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D011159:Population Surveillance / Q000379:methods*; D015995:Prevalence; D018570:Risk Assessment / Q000706:statistics & numerical data / Q000639:trends; D013624:Taiwan / Q000453:epidemiology; D013997:Time Factors