Background/aims: Many researchers have reported on the utilization of complementary and alternative medicine by patients with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). The aim of this study was to investigate the use of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) by all IBD patients within the National Health Insurance in Taiwan.
Methodology: The complete ambulatory visits records of TCM in 2004 were obtained from the National Health Insurance Research Database. For all IBD patients identified from the registry for catastrophic illness patients, patterns of TCM visits were analyzed.
Results: The prevalence of IBD in Taiwan was 5.6 per 100,000 persons at the end of 2004. Of 1,206 IBD patients, 440 (37%) patients have in total 3,169 TCM visits in 2004. Women were more likely to use TCM than men (40.5% vs. 34.3%). Among the TCM users of the IBD patients, 200 (45.5%) patients had gastroenterological diagnoses at their TCM visits. Most of their TCM visits contained herbal remedies (90%), followed by manual therapy (11.7%) and acupuncture (9.8%).
Conclusions: The high utilization rate of TCM among the IBD patients in Taiwan implied that their needs of medical care were not satisfied by the mainstream Western medicine. The TCM herbal regimens deserve further studies.