Table 5 Motivation for Chinese medicine use among patients and communication with Western medicine physicians
From: Cancer patients' attitudes towards Chinese medicine: a Hong Kong survey
Characteristics | N (%) |
|---|---|
Motivation for using Chinese medicine (N = 449) | |
Recommendation from relatives, ward-mates or others | 305 (67.9) |
Will of patients themselves | 234 (52.1) |
Recommendations from physicians | 17 (3.8) |
Other | 6 (1.3) |
Consulted with Western medicine physicians about Chinese medicine use | |
Yes | 175 (39.0) |
No | 274 (61.0) |
If 'yes', physician's response | |
Encourage | 51 (29.1) |
Neutral | 87 (49.7) |
Discourage | 35 (20.0) |
Other | 2 (1.1) |
If 'no', why | |
Doctor never asked | 129 (47.1) |
Patients thought Western medicine physician would not agree | 116 (42.3) |
Unnecessary to inform Western medicine physician | 77 (28.1) |
Other | 9 (3.3) |