Hon-Keung CHAN
Abstract
Many patients in Hong Kong with Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) are using Chinese medicine which at the same time are receiving conventional western medicine in orthodox clinics. If nurses are to develop an appropriate care plan for these patients, it is important that we have the understanding of the treatments that are utilized by our patients. This was a study to explore the utilization pattern and the reasons why patients with RA use Chinese and/or western medicine. It was a descriptive study using a self-developed questionnaire based on Andersen's health service utilization model as the framework. The questionnaire consists of personal information, predisposing factors, enabling factors, need factors, use and belief of Chinese and western medicine. Interviews were conducted among a convenient sample of 40 patients with RA who have their clinical follow-up at the Rheumatology Clinic in a public hospital. Descriptive statistics and non-parametric tests such as Mann-Whitney U test, Kruskal-Wallis H test and Wilcoxon signed ranks test were used to analyze the data. Content analysis was used to analyze the narrative comments collected by open-ended questions. The patients' beliefs in Chinese and western medicine (predisposing factors), the cost of treatments (enabling factors) and the effects of treatment (need factors) were identified to determine patients' choice of treatment and the pattern of use in Chinese or western medicine. Suggestions were given to nurses on how to improve their role, to monitor clients receiving both's Chinese and western medicine.
Key words: Chinese and western medicine, rheumatoid arthritis, treatment choice