Abstract

BackgroundTraditional Chinese medicine (TCM) is the most commonly used alternative therapy in children with asthma, especially in the Chinese community. This study aimed to investigate the effects of the government-sponsored Outpatient’s Healthcare Quality Improvement (OHQI) project with integrated TCM treatment on childhood asthma.MethodsThis study used the Longitudinal Health Insurance Database 2000, which is a part of the Taiwan National Health Insurance Research Database (NHIRD). Children with diagnosed asthma and aged under 15 years from 2006–2010 were enrolled. They were collated into 3 groups: (1) subjects treated with non-TCM; (2) subjects treated with single TCM; and (3) subjects treated with integrative OHQI TCM. The medical visits and the cost of treatment paid by the Bureau of National Health Insurance (BNHI) to the outpatient, emergency room, and inpatient departments were evaluated for the study subjects within 1 year of the first asthma diagnosis during the study period.ResultsFifteen multi-hospitals, including 7 medical centers, and 35 TCM physicians participated in OHQI during the study period. A total of 12850 children from the NHIRD database were enrolled in this study, and divided as follows: 12435 children in non-TCM group, 406 children in single TCM group, and 9 children in integrative OHQI TCM group. Although the total medical cost paid by the BNHI per patient in the integrative OHQI TCM group was greater than that in the non-OHQI groups, the patients in the integrative OHQI TCM group exhibited greater therapeutic effects, and did not require ER visits or hospitalization. In addition, ER visits and hospitalization among patients who received a combination of conventional therapy with integrated TCM were lower than those among patients who underwent conventional therapy alone or single TCM treatment.ConclusionsAsthmatic children at partly controlled level under conventional therapy may benefit from adjuvant treatment with integrated TCM.

Highlights

  • Traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) is the most commonly used alternative therapy in children with asthma, especially in the Chinese community

  • Fifteen multi-hospitals and 35 TCM physicians participated in the Outpatient’s Healthcare Quality Improvement (OHQI) during 2006–2010

  • In order to investigate the differences in outcome between childhood asthma with OHQI and without OHQI, data for 12850 children were selected from the National Health Insurance Research Database (NHIRD), including that for 12435 children treated without TCM, 406 children treated with single TCM, and 9 children treated with OHQI integrated with TCM

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Summary

Introduction

Traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) is the most commonly used alternative therapy in children with asthma, especially in the Chinese community. This study aimed to investigate the effects of the governmentsponsored Outpatient’s Healthcare Quality Improvement (OHQI) project with integrated TCM treatment on childhood asthma. Traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) is the most commonly used alternative therapy, especially in the Chinese community. Researchers have investigated various forms of TCM to treat asthma [23,24], including Chinese herbal medicine [25,26,27,28], acupuncture This study investigated the impact of the government-sponsored Outpatient’s Healthcare Quality Improvement (OHQI) project with integrated TCM treatment on the frequency of emergency treatment or hospitalization for childhood asthma

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