The Prescription Pattern of Chinese Herbal Products Containing Ginseng among Tamoxifen-Treated Female Breast Cancer Survivors in Taiwan: A Population-Based Study

Table 1

Demographic characteristics and results of multiple logistic regression showing the adjusted odds ratios (aORs) and 95% CIs (confidence intervals) for tamoxifen-treated breast cancer survivors from the National Health Insurance Catastrophic Illnesses Registry of Taiwan who were followed up from 1998 to 2008.

Characteristics	Tamoxifen users who had ever used ginseng (%)	Tamoxifen users who had never used TCM^a (%)	aOR^b; (95% CI^c)
Number of cases	13,502	17,031
Number of endometrial cancers	74	107
Age at diagnosis of breast cancer
Average	50.1 ± 10.8	52.4 ± 11.8
20~29 yrs	193 (1.4)	194 (1.1)	1
30~39 yrs	1,896 (14.0)	1,987 (11.7)	0.87 (0.70–1.08)
40~49 yrs	5,099 (37.8)	5,711 (33.5)	0.81 (0.66–1.00)
50~59 yrs	3,551 (26.3)	4,468 (26.2)	0.75 (0.61–0.92)
60~69 yrs	2,005 (14.8)	2,903 (17.0)	0.65 (0.53–0.81)
70~79 yrs	758 (5.6)	1,768 (10.4)	0.43 (0.34–0.54)
Insured salary ($NT/month)
0	2,337 (17.3)	3,636 (21.3)	1
1–19999	7,160 (53.0)	8,863 (52.0)	1.12 (1.05–1.19)
20000–39999	2,663 (19.7)	3,081 (18.1)	1.22 (1.13–1.32)
>=40000	1,342 (9.9)	1,451 (8.5)	1.32 (1.20–1.45)
Insured region
Northern Taiwan	6,593 (48.8)	9,766 (57.3)	1
Central Taiwan	2,827 (20.9)	2,375 (13.9)	1.89 (1.77–2.01)
Southern Taiwan	3,643 (27.0)	4,323 (25.4)	1.28 (1.21–1.36)
Eastern Taiwan	287 (2.1)	354 (2.1)	1.23 (1.05–1.45)
Outlying islands	152 (1.1)	215 (1.3)	1.06 (0.86–1.32)
Duration of tamoxifen treatment
<2 y	6,524 (48.3)	11,411 (67.0)	1
2–4 y	5,908 (43.8)	4,756 (27.9)	2.15 (2.05–2.26)
5–7 y	983 (7.3)	773 (4.5)	2.20 (1.99–2.44)
>=8 y	87 (0.6)	91 (0.5)	1.69 (1.26–2.28)
Cancer treatment modalities
Tamoxifen only	190 (1.4)	386 (2.3)	1
Tamoxifen and chemotherapy	290 (2.1)	777 (4.6)	0.70 (0.56–0.87)
Tamoxifen plus surgery	3,514 (26.0)	4,569 (26.8)	1.21 (1.01–1.46)
Tamoxifen, surgery, plus chemotherapy	9,508 (70.4)	11,299 (66.3)	1.22 (1.02–1.47)

TCM refers to traditional Chinese medicine; ^bOR refers to odds ratio; ^cCI refers to confidence interval.