Attitude, perception and practice towards traditional Chinese medicine among Chinese ophthalmic patients: A cross-sectional study.

OBJECTIVE

To achieve better therapeutic effects of combining traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) with Western medicine through exploring the attitude, perception and practice of Chinese ophthalmic patients towards TCM.

METHODS

A cross-sectional study was conducted through a questionnaire between July 1 and July 15, 2025, at the Department of Ophthalmology in a hospital in Shanghai. The 1000 included participants were divided into two groups based on whether they had received any TCM therapies before. Then, a 5-point Likert scale and logistic regressions were utilized to further analyze their attitude, perception and practice.

RESULTS

Ophthalmic patients more than 80 years old (compared with patients aged 18-39 years; P = 0.017, odds ratio [OR] = 2.318, 95% confidence interval [CI] [1.161, 4.631]), and qualified with senior high school (compared with primary school, P = 0.017, OR = 1.711, 95% CI [1.101, 2.657]), undergraduate (compared with primary school, P < 0.001, OR = 2.124, 95% CI [1.349, 3.344]) or postgraduate (compared with primary school, P = 0.031, OR = 2.224, 95% CI [1.074, 4.608]) degrees, who would receive eye surgery (P = 0.005, OR = 1.687, 95% CI [1.176, 2.420]), and diagnosed with dry eye disease (P < 0.001, OR = 1.719, 95% CI [1.276, 2.315]) were more likely to have an experience of TCM therapies. The patient-evaluated effects of TCM therapies between groups were different (P < 0.001). Chinese ophthalmic patients are not very optimistic about TCM, but there is still great room for progress and improvement.

CONCLUSION

Both TCM doctors and ophthalmologists should work on how to enhance popularization of TCM culture and promote TCM health literacy of the ophthalmic patients. In the future, the application of TCM therapies in the department of ophthalmology should be vigorously strengthened. Please cite this article as: Li S, Wang Y, Zhong M, Sun WF, Zhang R, Gao GP, Cui X, Su QY, Zou FY, Zhang M, Li N, Meng X, Wu GQ, Chu TT, Liu XN, Zhao CY. Attitude, perception and practice towards traditional Chinese medicine among Chinese ophthalmic patients: A cross-sectional study. J Integr Med. 2026; 24(5):690-697.