Patient with vertigo is reported to exhibit a higher subsequent risk of stroke. Bur it remained unclear if Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM), the most common complementary and alternative medicine, could help to lower the risk of stroke for these patients. We conducted a longitudinal cohort study to determine the effects of TCM on the stroke risk among the vertigo patients in Taiwan. We applied Taiwanese National Health Insurance Research Database to identify 112458 newly diagnosed vertigo patients aged≧20 years during 1998-2007. Of them, 53203 cases (47.31%) received TCM after vertigo onset, and the remaining cases belonged to the control group. All enrollees were followed up until the end of 2012 to measure stroke incidence. A Cox proportional hazards regression was used to compute the hazard ratio (HR) of stroke in relation to receipt of TCM service. Over a 15-year follow-up, 5532 TCM users and 12295 non- TCM users developed stroke, representing an incidence rate of 13.10 and 25.71 per 1,000 personyears. The vertigo patients receiving TCM had a significantly reduced risk of stroke as compared to those without TCM use, with an adjusted HR of 0.64 (95% confidence interval(CI), 0.59-0.74). The predominant effect was observed for those receiving TCM for more than 180 days (adjusted HR=0.52; 95% CI, 0.49-0.56). This study supported the effects of TCM on the stroke prevention for the vertigo patients.
