Literature review and analysis of the development of health outcomes assessment instruments in Chinese medicine

Journal of Integrative Medicine

Hou

Yang

et al. 2013

Self Cite

OBJECTIVE:To evaluate the application of health assessment instruments in Chinese medicine. METHODS: According to a pre-defined search strategy, a comprehensive literature search for all articles published in China National Knowledge Infrastructure databases was conducted. The resulting articles that met the defined inclusion and exclusion criteria were used for analysis. RESULTS: A total of 97 instruments for health outcome assessment in Chinese medicine have been used in fundamental and theoretical research, and 14 of these were also used in 29 clinical trials that were randomized controlled trials, or descriptive or cross-sectional studies. In 2 152 Chinese medicine-based studies that used instruments in their methodology, more than 150 questionnaires were identified. Among the identified questionnaires, 51 were used in more than 10 articles (0.5%). Most of these instruments were developed in Western countries and few studies (4%) used the instrument as the primary evidence for their conclusions. CONCLUSION: Usage of instruments for health outcome assessment in Chinese medicine is increasing rapidly; however, current limitations include selection rationale, result interpretation and standardization, which must be addressed accordingly. KEYWORDS: treatment outcome; health-related quality of life; patient-reported outcome; personal satisfaction; questionnaires; instrumentation; medicine, Chinese traditional; outcome assessment (health care) DOI: 10.3736/jintegrmed2013023 Liu FB, Hou ZK, Yang YY, Li PW, Li QW, Xie N, Li JW, Zeng XJ. Literature review and analysis of the application of health outcome assessment instruments in Chinese medicine.

Section: Search Strategies 221 Source Formula and Parametersmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Health assessment instruments in Chinese medicine are developing at a rapid rate [1] . These instruments serve as tools that were used by researchers, physicians and patients to measure physical, psychological, and social well-being of the patients.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Literature review and analysis of the application of health outcome assessment instruments in Chinese medicine

Journal of Integrative Medicine

Hou

Yang

et al. 2013

Self Cite

Wrist-ankle acupuncture and ginger moxibustion for preventing gastrointestinal reactions to chemotherapy: A randomized controlled trial

Sun

Dong

et al. 2015

Chin. J. Integr. Med.

Controversies on the values for health instruments of Chinese medicine

Hou

Chang

et al. 2016

Chin. J. Integr. Med.

Currently, there are increasing debates on the necessity of health instruments in Chinese medicine (CM) emerging in China. This study aims to reevaluate its status and values. Analyzing the causes, limits, advantages, and properties characters of health instruments in CM, it is found that weak fundamental research, incomplete self-awareness, and complicated social factors are the primary causes of debates. A comprehensive analysis showed health instruments in CM have health evaluation benefits to people from a dominant Chinese culture, meet the requirements of cultural background, and bring long-term value to Chinese instrument researches. However, its values and status should be treated differently depending on various subtypes. Although little theoretical and practical evidences proved that patients-reported health instruments in CM should be proposed independently, the doctors- and nurses-reported questionnaires are necessary. With this in mind, the study group proposes the 'Chinese cultural instruments (CCIs)' and 'health-related CCIs'. The latter one aims to evaluate the health status of people in a dominant Chinese culture. The CCIs theory represents Chinese instrument researches on a larger regional and higher level, and resolves the debates on instruments between CM and Western medicine in China. Health instruments in CM bring more scientific and social benefits for Chinese instrument researches. However, it does not include cultural demands, and lacks scientific significance. CCIs have all its virtues, and add solutions to the latter's theory bottleneck and scientific debates, thus bringing increased benefits to clinical assessment in complementary and alternative medicine researches.