Effect of traditional Chinese medicine combined with conventional Western medicine for patients with severe/very severe chronic obstructive pulmonary disease: a multi-center, randomized, double-blind, controlled study

Table 3 Comparison of the acute exacerbation

	Experimental group	Control group	P value*
Treatment for 52 weeks
Number of AECOPD events per patient, n (%)			0.015
0	149 (65.4)	127 (53.1)
1	44 (19.3)	48 (20.1)
2	18 (7.9)	37 (15.5)
≥3	17 (7.5)	27 (11.3)
Number of AECOPD events per patient, mean ± SD	0.63 ± 1.15	1.03 ± 1.59	0.002
Duration (days)
Average duration, mean ± SD	8.58 ± 6.02	8.52 ± 5.47	0.943
Follow up for 52 weeks
Number of AECOPD events per patient, n (%)			<0.001
0	106 (46.5)	40 (16.7)
1	86 (37.7)	62 (25.9)
2	27 (11.8)	75 (31.4)
≥3	9 (3.9)	62 (25.9)
Number of AECOPD events per patient, mean ± SD	0.72 ± 0.80	1.81 ± 1.31	<0.001
Duration (days)
Average duration, mean ± SD	8.85 ± 3.45	9.40 ± 4.91	0.981
Two-year average number of AECOPD events	0.68 ± 0.72	1.42 ± 1.17	<0.001
Week 52-first visit MD (95% CI)	−0.81 (−1.01 to −0.61)	−0.39 (−0.61 to −0.17)
	P < 0.001^▲	P < 0.001^▲
Week 104-first visit MD (95% CI)	−0.72 (−0.91 to −0.53)	0.39 (0.18–0.59)
	P < 0.001^▲	P < 0.001^▲

AECOPD acute exacerbation of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, MD mean difference, SD standard deviation, CI confidence interval
* P values are reported for between-group comparisons
^▲ P values are reported for within-group comparisons

ISSN: 1749-8546