Prescription patterns and factors influencing the use of Chinese herbal medicine among pregnant women in Taiwan: a population-based retrospective study

• Published in: BMC complementary and alternative medicine 2020-07, Vol.20 (1), p.240-240, Article 240
• Main Authors: Wen, Shu-Hui, Chang, Wei-Chuan, Shen, Hsuan-Shu, Wu, Hsien-Chang
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Abortion; Adolescent; Adult; Age; Alternative medicine; Analysis; Aquatic plants; Asthma; Chinese herbal medicine; Chinese medicine; Codes; Comorbidity; Coronary artery disease; Demographics; Diagnostic systems; Drugs, Chinese Herbal - therapeutic use; Education; Female; Females; Health insurance; Heart diseases; Herbal medicine; Herbs; Humans; Hypertension; Kidney diseases; Medicine, Chinese Traditional - statistics & numerical data; Middle Aged; Multivariate analysis; National health insurance; Obstetrics; Perinatal; Peripartum; Population studies; Population-based studies; Practice Patterns, Physicians' - statistics & numerical data; Pregnancy; Pregnancy Complications - drug therapy; Pregnant women; Prescriptions; Regression analysis; Residential areas; Retrospective Studies; Rhizomes; Stillbirth; Taiwan; Traditional Chinese medicine; Womens health; Young Adult
• ISSN: 2662-7671; 2662-7671; 1472-6882
• DOI: 10.1186/s12906-020-03032-0

The use of Chinese herbal medicine (CHM) has been widely promoted as a natural and safe way to treat illness during pregnancy. However, prescription patterns and factors influencing its use are largely unknown. Therefore, we conducted a population-based study to address these questions. Pregnant women aged 18-50 years were selected from Taiwan's National Health Insurance Research Database between 2001 to 2011. CHM prescriptions and diagnostic records were collected. Demographic data and pre-existing diseases were compared between CHM users and non-users. A multivariate logistic regression analysis was performed to identify possible factors influencing the use of CHM during pregnancy. A total of 81,873 eligible prescription records were identified, and 16,553 pregnant women were prescribed CHM during pregnancy, yielding a CHM prescription rate of 20.2%. The three most frequently used herbs were Scutellariae Radix (Huang Qin) (4.4%), Eucommiae cortex (Du Zhong) (2.5%), and Atractylodes Rhizome (Bai Zhu) (2.4%). The most frequently used herbal formulae were Dang-Guei-Shao-Yao-San (4.1%), Jia-Wei-Xiao-Yao-San (3.5%), and Xiang-Sha-Liu-Jun-Zi-Tang (2.6%). Multivariate logistic regression revealed that subjects with an older age, a university education, a pre-pregnancy history of CHM use, asthma, chronic renal disease, and cardiac valvular disease and living in a residential area other than northern Taiwan had an increase in adjusted odds ratio for CHM use during pregnancy. In this population-based study, we found that demographic factors and pre-existing diseases were associated with the use of CHM among pregnant women. It is worth noting that Leonuri Herba (Yi Mu Cao) and Shao-Fu-Zhu-Yu-Tang should be used with caution in the first trimester. Further research is needed to explore the safety and effectiveness of the use of CHM in pregnant women.