Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) is regularly used in treating upper respiratory tract infections, particularly for patients (more female patients in database found) with mild symptoms, using commonly preferred prescriptions, i.e Yin Qian San & Ma Xing Shi Gan Tang.
In this study, data from the National Health Insurance Research Database was analyzed with particular attention to the treatments used for upper respiratory tract infections (URTIs). The International Classification of Diseases, Ninth Revision, Clinical Modification diagnoses codes for Taiwan in 2009, were used to identify these treatments. Techniques of data mining and association rules were deployed to examine co-prescriptions of TCM for patients with URTIs.
Discussion of the results shows that out of a sample of 472,005 patients who sought treatment for URTIs, approximately 10 percent were treated with TCM and among these, over three-fifths were female. A majority - 79 percent - presented with an acute common cold. The study also noted that certain prescriptions, namely Yin-Qiao-San and Ma-Xing-Gan-Shi-Tang, were most commonly combined for patients with URTIs. The insight showed that patients were more likely to request TCM treatment if their symptoms were mild and they were women. Chinese medicine doctors treating URTIs generally adhered to TCM theory.
