Single-hospital study links caregiver traits to TCM nursing demand

Parents of hospitalized children reported moderately high demand for traditional Chinese medicine nursing services in a cross-sectional study of 348 parents at one tertiary children’s hospital. Participation in traditional Chinese medicine-related training or lectures was the factor most strongly associated with demand in the study’s regression model, while parental age, educational level and place of residence were also independently associated with reported need. The study measured demand rather than the effects of receiving traditional Chinese medicine nursing care.

Researchers used convenience sampling to recruit the parents at the single hospital and collected data through a self-developed questionnaire that the study team reported had been formally validated and shown to have good reliability and validity. The analysis assessed parents’ current demand for traditional Chinese medicine nursing services. As a cross-sectional observational study, it identified relationships measured at one point and could not establish whether any characteristic caused demand to change.

Overall demand across the 348 participants was classified as moderately high. The questionnaire contained three evaluation dimensions, with the dimension measuring specific traditional Chinese medicine nursing service needs recording the highest scoring rate at 73.70%. The supplied abstract did not report the numerical results for the other dimensions or enumerate the services included in the questionnaire, so the available evidence does not support comparisons among individual services or claims about which particular service generated the most demand.

Multiple linear regression identified four factors independently associated with traditional Chinese medicine nursing demand: age, educational level, residential location and participation in traditional Chinese medicine-related training or lectures, each reported at P < 0.001. Training participation was the strongest associated factor in the model. This was a statistical association between reported training exposure and questionnaire scores, not evidence that training increased demand. The observational analysis also cannot determine how parents came to participate in training or whether the relationship differed for other reasons.

The regression model explained approximately 46.9% of the variance in demand scores, with R = 0.685, R² = 0.469, adjusted R² = 0.457 and P < 0.001. The variables included in the model therefore accounted for a substantial portion, but not all, of the observed variation among participants. The findings apply most directly to the parents studied at this hospital; the single-site convenience sample does not establish that the same associations or proportions apply across hospitals, regions or healthcare systems.

Based on the results, the authors proposed stratified health education, a more balanced distribution of traditional Chinese medicine resources between urban and rural areas, and improved support systems as possible approaches for addressing the identified needs. These are proposed strategies rather than tested interventions, and the authors stated that they require further evaluation and confirmation in intervention studies. The research did not test whether such strategies affected care quality or clinical outcomes, nor did it provide evidence that any traditional Chinese medicine nursing service improved symptoms, recovery, hospital stay, satisfaction, treatment adherence or child health. The defensible conclusion is that moderately high demand was observed among this group of parents and that parental characteristics and training participation were associated with that demand; the broader clinical and service-planning implications remain hypotheses for subsequent research.

Subject of Research: Parental demand for traditional Chinese medicine nursing services in a tertiary children’s hospital

Article Title: Correlates of traditional Chinese medicine nursing service demand among caregivers of hospitalized children: implications for practice optimization

Article References: Dong, S., Yao, D., Ge, X., & Zhu, B. (2026). Correlates of traditional Chinese medicine nursing service demand among caregivers of hospitalized children: implications for practice optimization. BMC Nursing. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12912-026-05439-5

Image Credits: AI Generated

DOI: 10.1186/s12912-026-05439-5

Keywords: pediatric nursing, traditional Chinese medicine, parental demand, caregiver needs, cross-sectional study, health education, nursing services, hospital care, Correlates, traditional, Chinese, medicine