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This study aimed to examine the factors associated with Chinese medicine use amongst a sample of 10,287 Australian women aged 56-61 years. Data was obtained from a cross-sectional postal questionnaire conducted in 2007, this being the fifth survey of the Australian Longitudinal Study on Women's Health. This representative sample of 10,287 women was randomly selected from the Health Insurance Commission (Medicare) database. The outcome measure was the use of Chinese medicine in the previous 12 months. The predictive factors included demographics, health status measures and health service utilization measures. Statistical analyses included univariate chi-square and ANOVA tests and backward stepwise multiple logistic regression modelling. The use of Chinese medicine amongst women aged 56-61 years appears to be strongly influenced by their country of birth, consultation with a range of CAM practitioners, and the use of some self-prescribed CAM. Interestingly, severe tiredness was the only symptom or diagnosis that predicted Chinese medicine use. Given the substantial prevalence of Chinese medicine use and the finding that the use of Chinese medicine is heavily integrated alongside the use of many other CAM and conventional treatments, it is imperative for the safety of patients that health professionals (across complementary and conventional healthcare) fully recognise the possible Chinese medicine use amongst their practice populations. In order to help inform relevant practice and policy development it is also important that future research further examining women's decision-making, motivations and evaluations regarding Chinese medicine use considers such issues within the context of broader CAM and conventional health care utilization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Ayurveda is a traditional Indian system of medicine. The customized Ayurvedic approach consists of a combination of several diagnostic procedures and subsequent individualized therapeutic interventions. Evaluation of inter-rater reliability (IRR) of Ayurvedic diagnoses has rarely been performed. The aim of this study was to evaluate IRR of Ayurvedic diagnosis for patients with knee osteoarthritis. Methods: A diagnostic reliability study of 30 patients and 4 Ayurvedic experts was nested in a randomized controlled trial. Patients were diagnosed in a sequential order by all experts utilizing a semistructured patient history form. A nominal group technique as consensus procedure was performed to reach agreement on the items to be diagnosed. An IRR analysis using Fleiss' and Cohen's kappa statistics was performed to determine a chance-corrected measure of agreement among raters. Results: One hundred and twenty different ratings and 30 consensus ratings were performed and analyzed. While high percentages of agreement for main diagnostic entities and the final Ayurveda diagnosis (95% consensus agreement on main diagnosis) could be observed, this was not reflected in the corresponding kappa values, which largely yielded fair-to-poor inter-rater agreement kappas for central diagnostic aspects such as prakriti and agni (κ values between 0 and 0.4). Notably, agreement on disease-related entities was better than that on constitutional entities. Conclusions: This is the first diagnostic study embedded in a clinical trial on patients with knee osteoarthritis utilizing a multimodality whole systems approach. Results showed a contrast between the high agreement of the consented final diagnosis and disagreement on certain diagnostic details. Future diagnostic studies should have larger sample sizes and a methodology more tailored to the specificities of traditional whole systems of medicine. Equal emphasis will need to be placed on all core diagnostic components of Ayurveda, both constitutional and disease specific, using detailed structured history taking forms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]