Hong Kong survey: Cancer patients' attitudes towards Chinese medicine

 

Cancer patients' attitudes towards Chinese medicine: a Hong Kong survey

 

Authors: Yuen-chi Lam1, Chung-wah Cheng1, Heng Peng2, Chun-key Law3, Xianzhang Huang1 and Zhaoxiang Bian*1

 

1 School of Chinese Medicine, Hong Kong Baptist University, Hong Kong SAR, China,

2 Department of Mathematics, Hong Kong BaptistUniversity, Hong Kong SAR, China

3 Department of Clinical Oncology, Queen Elizabeth Hospital, Hong Kong SAR, China

 

Abstract


Background: This article reports a survey conducted in Hong Kong on the cancer patients'

attitudes towards Chinese medicine treatment.

 

Methods: Cancer patients from three Chinese medicine clinics and one oncology clinic were interviewed with a structured questionnaire.

 

Results: Of a total of 786 participants included in the study, 42.9% used Western medicine only;57.1% used at least one form of Chinese medicine; 5 participants used Chinese medicine only; and56.5% used Chinese medicine before/during/after Western medicine treatment. Commonly used Western medicine and Chinese medicine treatments included chemotherapy (63.7%), radiotherapy (62.0%), surgery (57.6%), Chinese herbal medicine (53.9%) and Chinese dietary therapy (9.5%). Participants receiving chemotherapy used Chinese medicine (63.3%) more than those receiving any other Western medicine treatments. Spearman correlation coefficients showed that the selection of Chinese medicine was associated with the cancer type (rs = -1.36; P < 0.001), stage (rs = 0.178;P < 0.001), duration (rs = -0.074; P = 0.037), whether receiving chemotherapy (rs = 0.165; P < 0.001) and palliative therapy (rs = 0.087; P = 0.015). Nearly two-thirds of the participants (N = 274) did not tell their physicians about using Chinese medicine. Over two-thirds of all participants (68.2%) believed that integrated Chinese and Western medicine was effective.

 

Conclusion: Chinese medicine is commonly used among Hong Kong cancer patients. The

interviewed cancer patients in Hong Kong considered integrative Chinese and Western medicine is an effective cancer treatment.


This article is an Open Access article published in Chinese Medicine and originated from Bio Med CentralFor full-text PDF article, please click to download.

 

 

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