Objectives The purpose of this study is to analyse research trends about obesity pattern identification in traditional chinese medicine.
Methods Electronic searches were performed with China National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI). The first key words were “肥胖”, “肥滿” and second key words were “病因”, “分型”, “病機”, “辨證”, “分流”. We classified the papers by year and content. We investigated frequency of chinese obesity pattern identification.
Results 48 studies were finally included. Papers were published between 1987 and 2013. More than half of the total were published since 2009. 36 studies were literature and Paper review studies. 16 studies were clinical research. There were ‘qi deficiency’, ‘spleen deficiency’, ‘yang deficiency’, ‘yin deficiency’, ‘stomach heat ’, ‘qi stagnation’, ‘liver qi depression’, ‘phlegm-dampness’, ‘phlegm-heat’, ‘blood stasis’ in chinese obesity pattern identification studies. ‘Phlegm-dampness’ was used most frequently, followed by ‘spleen deficiency’, ‘yang deficiency’, ‘blood stasis’, ‘qi stagnation’, ‘liver qi depression’, ‘stomach heat ’, ‘qi deficiency’, ‘yin deficiency ’ and ‘phlegm-heat’ in literature and paper review studies. ‘Phlegm-dampness’ was used most frequently, followed by ‘yang deficiency’, ‘spleen deficiency’, ‘liver qi depression’, ‘stomach heat ’, ‘blood stasis ’, ‘yin deficiency’, ‘qi deficiency’, ‘phlegm-heat ’ and ‘qi stagnation’ in clinical research.
Conclusions Based on studies of chinese obesity pattern identification, More clinical trials and obesity pattern identification studies are needed.