The correlation study about traditional Chinese medicine constitution and quality of life in the population of the elderly patients with tumor in Changning district of Shanghai / 国际中医中药杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective To investigate the distribution about TCM constitution types and quality of life of the elderly patients with high incidence of tumor in Changning district of Shanghai, and analyze the correlation of them, in order to provide reference for follow-up management and rehabilitation of the patients.Methods The data about lung cancer, gastric cancer, and colorectal cancer was collected from Changning District of Shanghai from Jan. 2013 to Oct. 2015. The classification of TCM constitution was for the TCM constitution identified, and the Karnofsky Performance Status (KPS) was used for the assessment of life quality. Data was analyzed by SPSS 23.0. Results This study had collected 673 patients with tumor, and the average age was 75.82 ± 6.73. The colorectal cancer accounted 56.6%, the lung cancer 26.9%, and the gastric cancer 16.5%. The 88.3% of the patients were Qi-deficiency, and 41.4% belonged to compound constitution. The 53.3% of the patients had 80 scores on the first follow-up KPS value and 54.6% of them had the same scores on the last follow-up KPS value. There was a significant difference in KPS scores between the two follow-ups (rs=0.112, P=0.002). There was a negative correlation between the Yang-deficiency constitution and the Blood-stasis constitution of gastric patients with its first KPS value. Conclusions The TCM constitution types of the elderly patients with high incidence of tumor was Qi-deficiency type, which its KPS value of the two follow-ups were all high. There was a certain correlation between TCM constitution and KPS. Therefore, during the follow-up management of tumor patients, according to the types of TCM constitution, the Chinese medicine rehabilitation program could be set in order to improve their quality of life.