Real-world evidence for herbal medicine benefit in 9728 type 2 diabetes patients-peridonotitis risk and ambulatory care utilization

BACKGROUND Recent evidence manifests that individuals with type 2 diabetes (T2D) are increasingly affected by oral disorders. Although medicinal herbs have shown promise in managing T2D, their benefit in managing periodontitis risk and subsequent healthcare utilization remains uncertain. AIM To compare risk of periodontitis and associated ambulatory care utilization among individuals with T2D who did or did not receive add-on medicinal herbs. METHODS We included individuals aged 20-70 years with newly diagnosis of T2D and being free of periodontitis in 2000 and 2010. Periodontitis events were tracked from cohort entry until December 31, 2013. The association between medicinal herb use and periodontitis risk was assessed by multivariate Cox regression, while differences in periodontitis-related ambulatory care were analyzed using Mann-Whitney U test. RESULTS After propensity score matching, 9728 individuals were included in both the herbal and non-herbal groups. Those who used herbs for more than two years experienced a potently lower risk of periodontitis by 52%. Compared to herb users, the non-users substantially incurred higher frequency and cost of periodontitis-related ambulatory visits post-diagnosis, and the costs per ambulatory visit increased with time after periodontitis onset. CONCLUSION The rollout of this study not only tackled the former research gap but also provided an insight that the combination of medicinal herbs may take into account while planning holistic and individualized oral health care for T2D persons.