Use frequency of traditional Chinese medicine in Taiwan

Table 6 Percentage distribution of diseases categories for 156,224,266 traditional Chinese medicine visits by different age groups, 1996–2001, in Taiwan*

Major disease category	Years of age
	0–19	20–39	40–59	>60
Symptoms, signs, ill-defined conditions^†	13.2	13.2	15.0	16.2
Musculoskeletal system^†	5.3	15.5	21.0	25.4
Nervous system and sense organs^†	1.1	2.6	4.2	5.6
Circulatory system^†	0.2	1.1	2.6	5.6
Endocrine and metabolic diseases^†	0.2	0.8	1.8	2.3
Mental disorders^†	0.2	0.7	1.0	1.0
Neoplasm^†	0.1	0.2	0.4	0.4
Digestive system	9.5	12.9	13.9	13.6
Infectious and parasitic diseases	0.3	0.6	0.5	0.4
Genitourinary system	3.9	10.9	6.7	3.5
Respiratory system^‡	48.3	22.6	20.4	18.6
Skin and subcutaneous tissue	4.0	4.3	2.2	1.7
Injury and poisoning	14.0	15.3	11.9	8.5

*5,836,651 (3.8%) visits had more than one diagnosis. ^†Percentages increased with age. ^‡Percentages decreased with age.

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