Objective To evaluate the efficacy and safety of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) in treatingchronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) in a stable stage. Methods We searched MEDLINE (1950 to July 2008), PubMed (1996 to July 2008), VIP (1989 to July 2008), WanFang (1998 to July 2008), CNKI (1979 to July 2008), and CBM (1978 to July 2008)for randomized control trials about TCM to treat stable COPD. Trial screening, quality assessment of included trials, and data extract were conducted. Statistical analysis was conducted by using RevMan 4.2.7 software. Results A total of 30 randomized controlled trials (RCTs) in the Chinese language were identified. No pooled analysis was performed because of the significant heterogeneity among the included trials. (1) For TCM alone versus blank therapy or placebo: 3 RCTs reported the clinical effective rate and only 1 indicated TCM was more effective; 5 RCTs reported forced expiratory volume in one second (FEV1)% after treatment and 2 indicated TCM alone as more effective in improving lung function; 4 RCTs reported quality of life after therapy and 2 indicated TCM alone was more effective in improving quality of life after therapy. (2) For integrated tradtional and western medicine versus western medicine alone: 11 RCTs included the clinical effective rate, 3 RCTs showed that integrated traditional and western medicine was more effective. Of 8 RCTs reporting FEV1%, 2 RCTs suggested that integrated traditional and western medicine was more effective. There were 3 RCTs studying 6 minute walking distance and 4 RCTs about quality of life, which also showed that integrated traditional and western medicine was more effective. No obvious adverse reaction to TCM was reported.Conclusions The current evidence shows TCM tends to relieve the symptoms and improve quality of life for patients with stable COPD without obvious adverse reaction. Due to the low methodological quality of trials included, more RCTsof high quality and large scale are required.
ObjectiveTo understand the distribution of demographic sociological characteristics and co-morbidities among primiparous and multiparous pregnant women under the China's universal two-child policy, to provide baseline data for clinical high-risk management and medical resources allocation.MethodsWe included pregnant women from 24 hospitals in 16 provinces (municipality, autonomous region) of China and collected their demographic sociological characteristics and obstetrics information by questionnaires between September 19th, and November 20th, 2016. Then, we used descriptive analysis to present the distribution of demographic sociological characteristics and pregnancy co-morbidities among primiparous and multiparous women and compared differences between groups by t test or Chi-square test.ResultsAmong 12 403 investigated pregnant women, 8 268 (66.7%) were primiparous and 4 135 (33.3%) were multiparous, with highest proportion in East (931/2 008, 46.4%) and lowest in Northeast (385/2 179, 17.7%). Multiparous women, comparing to primiparous women, were more likely to be elderly than 35 years (accounting for 30.6% vs. 6.5%), lower educated with high school or below (29.7% vs. 16.9%), occupied in physical labor or unemployed (49.2% vs. 42.5%), non-local residents (12.7% vs. 10.5%), family annual income higher than 120 thousand yuan (41.3% vs. 33.3%), pre-pregnancy body mass index≥24 kg/m2 (13.6% vs. 9.9%), history of artificial abortions (44.9% vs. 24.0%), or pregnancies≥4 times (23.8% vs. 3.1%) and were less likely to receive assisted reproductive technology (2.3% vs. 4.7%). The most common co-morbidities were gynecology disease (5.5%), thyroid disease (5.4% in all women), blood system disease (5.0%), digestive system disease (4.2%) and hepatitis B infection (2.5%). Multiparous women, comparing to primiparous women, had higher proportions with blood system disease (5.7% vs. 4.7%), hepatitis B infection (3.1% vs. 2.2%) and chronic hypertension (0.6% vs. 0.2%), but lower proportions with thyroid diseases, polycystic ovary syndrome, and immune system diseases, whose distribution also showed regional differences.ConclusionThere existed distribution differences regarding demographic sociological characteristics and co-morbidities proportions between primiparous and multiparous women. Therefore, we should improve clinical risk management and medical resources allocation based on pregnant women’s baseline and gestational characteristics.