Acute adverse events from over-the-counter Chinese herbal medicines: a population-based survey of Hong Kong Chinese

BMC Complementary and Alternative Medicine

William B Goggins¹  Terry Wong¹  John CO Lee¹  Vincent CH Chung¹  Elizabeth MS Kwong¹  Jean H Kim¹ 

[1] School of Public Health and Primary Care, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Prince of Wales Hospital, Shatin, New Territories, Hong Kong

关键词: Traditional medicine;    Complementary and alternative medicine;    Pharmaceutical safety;    Adverse events;    Prevention;    Health education;    Health Services;    Traditional Chinese Medicine;   

Others  :  1220481
DOI  :  10.1186/1472-6882-13-336

 received in 2013-03-25, accepted in 2013-10-30,  发布年份 2013

【 摘 要 】

Background

Although over-the-counter traditional Chinese herbal medicine (COTC) is commonly used to treat everyday illness in many parts of the world, no population-based study has been done to examine the prevalence and factors associated with COTC-related adverse events.

Methods

A cross-sectional telephone survey was conducted among Hong Kong Chinese adults in 2011 (n = 1100) with informed verbal consent. Stepwise logistic regression of demographic, attitudinal and behavioral variables was used to determine factors associated with past-year adverse events.

Results

Of study respondents, 71.7% (789/1100) reported past-year COTC use and 2.3% (25/1100) reported at least one COTC-related adverse event in the past year. Of the 27 adverse events cases reported among COTC users, the most common were allergic reactions (n = 11) dizziness (n = 5), and gastro-intestinal problems (n = 4). Pills/capsules were the dosage form that caused the highest proportion of adverse events (n = 10), followed by plasters (n = 7), creams/ointments (n = 5), and ingestible powders (n = 2).

Although COTC users reporting adverse events were more likely to report greater practices to avoid adverse events (OR = 6.47; 95% CI: 1.38-30.3); they were also more likely to possess lower education levels (OR = 9.64, 95% CI: 2.20-42.3) and to have received COTC information from non-reliable, mass-media information sources such as magazines (OR = 3.32; 95% CI: 1.01-8.50) or television (OR = 2.93; 95% CI: 1.03-10.7). Package labels were also felt to be unclear by 42.9% of COTC users. A large proportion of COTC users demonstrated low levels of COTC-related knowledge, while the main impediment to greater information-seeking was the belief that reliable COTC information is not obtainable from Western health professionals.

Conclusions

Despite global movements toward more stringent complementary medicine regulation, the limited accessibility of reliable information and widespread misperceptions among consumers present major challenges for the safe use of complementary medicine.

【 授权许可】

   
2013 Kim et al.; licensee BioMed Central Ltd.

【 图 表 】

Figure 1.

Figure 2.

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