Table 1.
Demographic characteristics of patients with diagnosed atopic dermatitis, asthma and allergic rhinitis in the period of 2003–2012, grouped by status of TCM use.
| Atopic dermatitis (n = 28,771) |
Asthma (n = 71,838) |
Allergic rhinitis (n = 191,851) |
|||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| TCM use |
No TCM use |
χ2,b | P | SMDd | TCM use |
No TCM use |
χ2 | P | SMD | TCM use |
No TCM use |
χ2 | P | SMD | |
| (n = 8772) |
(n = 19,999) |
(n = 20,866) |
(n = 50,972) |
(n = 87,649) |
(n = 104,202) |
||||||||||
| N (%) | N (%) | N (%) | N (%) | N (%) | N (%) | ||||||||||
| Age, years | |||||||||||||||
| Age<10 | 1584 (18.06) | 5637 (28.19) | 488.2 | <10−5 | 0.29 | 5272 (25.27) | 17,877 (35.07) | 943.7 | <10−5 | 0.25 | 15,223 (17.37) | 25,446 (24.42) | 3290.1 | <10−5 | 0.27 |
| 10 ≤ age<30 | 2414 (27.52) | 4639 (23.20) | 3155 (15.12) | 6775 (13.29) | 28,950 (33.03) | 27,532 (26.42) | |||||||||
| 30 ≤ age<50 | 2408 (27.45) | 3877 (19.39) | 4658 (22.32) | 7643 (14.99) | 26,610 (30.36) | 24,987 (23.98) | |||||||||
| Age≥50 | 2366 (26.97) | 5846 (29.23) | 7781 (37.29) | 18,677 (36.64) | 16,866 (19.24) | 26,237 (25.18) | |||||||||
| Sex | |||||||||||||||
| Females | 5343 (60.91) | 10,061 (50.31) | 275.5 | <10−5 | 0.22 | 11,649 (55.83) | 24,163 (47.40) | 420.2 | <10−5 | 0.17 | 49,162 (56.09) | 49,675 (47.67) | 1350.6 | <10−5 | 0.17 |
| Males | 3429 (39.09) | 9938 (49.69) | 9217 (44.17) | 26,809 (52.60) | 38,487 (43.91) | 54,527 (52.33) | |||||||||
| Enrollee category | |||||||||||||||
| I | 647 (7.38) | 1214 (6.07) | 38.6 | <10−5 | 0.08 | 1476 (7.07) | 2962 (5.81) | 138.3 | <10−5 | 0.10 | 7367 (8.41) | 7054 (6.77) | 594.6 | <10−5 | 0.11 |
| II | 2594 (29.57) | 5677 (28.39) | 5723 (27.43) | 13,307 (26.11) | 30,088 (34.33) | 32,947 (31.62) | |||||||||
| III | 2324 (26.49) | 5331 (26.66) | 6291 (30.15) | 14,454 (28.36) | 20,969 (23.92) | 24,837 (23.84) | |||||||||
| IV | 1022 (11.65) | 2737 (13.69) | 2676 (12.82) | 7299 (14.32) | 8798 (10.04) | 12,925 (12.40) | |||||||||
| Other | 2185 (24.91) | 5040 (25.20) | 4700 (22.52) | 12,950 (25.41) | 20,427 (23.31) | 26,439 (25.37) | |||||||||
| Geographical area | |||||||||||||||
| Urban | 2661 (30.34) | 6043 (30.22) | 24.3 | 2.2 × 10−5 | 0.06 | 5902 (28.29) | 14,269 (27.99) | 11.9 | 7.9 × 10−3 | 0.03 | 26,216 (29.91) | 32,364 (31.06) | 81.2 | <10−5 | 0.07 |
| Suburban | 4954 (56.48) | 10,918 (54.59) | 11,885 (56.96) | 28,667 (56.24) | 51,184 (58.40) | 58,779 (56.41) | |||||||||
| Rural | 775 (8.83) | 1937 (9.69) | 1957 (9.38) | 5061 (9.93) | 6098 (6.96) | 7807 (7.49) | |||||||||
| Other |
382 (4.35) |
1101 (5.51) |
1122 (5.38) |
2975 (5.84) |
4151 (4.74) |
5252 (5.04) |
|||||||||
| TCM use |
No TCM use |
tc | P | SMD | TCM use |
No TCM use |
t | P | SMD | TCM use |
No TCM use |
t | P | SMD | |
| Mean ± SD |
Mean ± SD |
Mean ± SD |
Mean ± SD |
Mean ± SD |
Mean ± SD |
||||||||||
| Health utilizationa | |||||||||||||||
| No. of inpatient visits | 0.18 ± 0.75 | 0.23 ± 0.80 | 4.9 | <10−5 | 0.06 | 0.36 ± 0.94 | 0.47 ± 1.14 | 13.4 | <10−5 | 0.11 | 0.13 ± 0.52 | 0.19 ± 0.66 | 22.7 | <10−5 | 0.10 |
| No. of outpatient visits | 31.43 ± 19.75 | 25.07 ± 18.34 | 25.7 | <10−5 | 0.33 | 34.38 ± 20.24 | 26.12 ± 17.95 | 51.3 | <10−5 | 0.43 | 26.85 ± 17.33 | 21.92 ± 15.82 | 64.7 | <10−5 | 0.30 |
Abbreviation: TCM: traditional Chinese medicine; SD: standard deviation; SMD: standardized mean difference.
a
Health utilization is calculated based on one year after the index date.
b
Critical values were calculated by chi-squared test.
c
Critical values were calculated by Student's t-test.
d
SMD more than or equal to 0.1 between two groups is marked in bold.