Utilization of and Attitudes towards Traditional Chinese Medicine Therapies in a Chinese Cancer Hospital: A Survey of Patients and Physicians

Table 3

Reasons for TCM use: patients' response versus physicians' perceptions and physician beliefs about TCM utility.

Reason	Patient reason for use*; % yes	Physician perception of patient reason for use; % yes	𝜒^2	𝑃	Physician belief about utility; % yes
Chinese herbal medicine (CHM)
Cure or treat cancer or prolong life	66.4	57.0	1.82	0.177	54.2
Symptom relief or improve QOL	51.8	83.3	20.0	<0.001	87.5
Improve immune function	53.3	86.1	22.2	<0.001	83.3
Health problems other than cancer	4.4	40.3	43.6	<0.001	37.5
Tonics and food therapy
Cure or treat cancer or prolong life	43.0	36.1	1.00	0.317	26.4
Symptom relief or improve QOL	50.6	75.0	12.4	<0.001	76.4
Improve immune function	72.7	75.0	0.14	0.708	72.2
Health problems other than cancer	4.7	75.0	132	<0.001	20.8
Qi Gong *
Cure or treat cancer or prolong life	50.0	22.2			13.9
Symptom relief or improve QOL	12.5	51.4			52.8
Improve immune function	62.5	43.1			38.9
Health problems other than cancer	12.5	12.5			9.7
Acupuncture *
Cure or treat cancer or prolong life	33.3	20.8			18.1
Symptom relief or improve QOL	0.0	66.7			68.1
Improve immune function	33.3	29.2			27.8
Health problems other than cancer	66.7	26.4			27.8

* The total number of patients using Qi Gong was only 8 and using acupuncture was only 3, thus comparative statistics were not conducted.