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. 2022 Sep 15;22(1):240.
doi: 10.1186/s12906-022-03715-w.

Practicing traditional Chinese medicine in the COVID-19 pandemic in Switzerland - an exploratory study

Angélique Bourqui  1 , Pierre-Yves Rodondi  2 , Emna El May  3 , Julie Dubois  2
Affiliations

Practicing traditional Chinese medicine in the COVID-19 pandemic in Switzerland - an exploratory study

Angélique Bourqui et al. BMC Complement Med Ther. .

Abstract

Background: To curb the spread of the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Swiss government declared a state of health emergency and ordered a legal restriction concerning the opening of healthcare institutions. In this study, we aimed to assess the proportion of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) physicians and therapists who consulted patients regarding COVID-19 during the first wave of the pandemic in 2020 in Switzerland, as well as the extent to which COVID-19 affected their practices during the same period.

Methods: A retrospective study was performed by using a questionnaire from January to April 2021 among a random sample of TCM physicians and therapists based in Switzerland. The survey included questions on demographic characteristics, opening status of practices, channels of communication used for the medical encounter, and experience in managing the prevention, acute, and recovery stages of COVID-19 infection.

Results: Among the 320 participants, 76% consulted a patient regarding COVID-19 at least once. Overall, physicians and therapists consulted more patients during recovery (76.3%) and prevention (67.8%) than during the acute stage (19.8%) of the disease. Acupuncture was the most frequently used technique among TCM therapists and physicians consulting for prevention (80.4%) and recovery (92.5%), whereas Chinese pharmacopeia was the most used technique among those consulting for the acute stage (59.3%). Of those who closed their practices from March to April 2020 but kept consulting, telephone (30.4%) and home visits (29.9%) were the two principal methods of consultation.

Conclusions: The restriction concerning the opening of practices induced a loss of the health workforce, especially among TCM therapists. Nonetheless, TCM therapists and physicians consulted patients regarding COVID-19, especially during the recovery stage. As there is a demand for the use of TCM in the context of COVID-19, it raises the need for a better consideration of TCM in the Swiss health care system.

Keywords: COVID-19; Physician; Switzerland; TCM; Therapist.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that they have no competing interests.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Flowchart
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
Number and percentage of TCM physicians and therapists who thought that TCM had a role to play in the management of COVID-19 according to the different stages of COVID-19 (prevention, acute, recovery)
Fig. 3
Fig. 3
Number and percentage of TCM physicians’ and therapists’ consultations related to the stage of COVID-19 (prevention, acute, recovery)
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

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