3.8 Demographic and clinical correlates of herb-drug
interaction among cancer patients
The bivariable logistic regression models showed that herb-drug
interactions were related to sex, cancer site, recurrence status,
experience pain as chemotherapy complication, and the number of
chemotherapeutic agents and herbal medicines. Based on the results,
females (OR: 2.28, 95% CI: 1.22–4.26; P-value=0.01), and patients with
the experience of pain during chemotherapy (OR: 3.16, 95% CI:
1.70–5.87; P-value<0.0001) had greater odds of herb-drug
interactions. By increasing the number of chemotherapeutic agents (OR:
1.75, 95% CI: 1.40–2.19; P-value<0.0001) and herbal
medicines (OR: 1.12, 95% CI: 1.05–1.20, P-value<0.0001) the
odds of herb-drug interactions increased for cancer patients. In
contrast, patients with gastrointestinal cancers (OR: 0.09, 95% CI:
0.03–0.24, P-value<0.0001) and other types pf cancers (OR:
0.20, 95% CI: 0.04–0.95, P-value=0.04) versus patients with breast
cancer had a lower odd of herb-drug interactions. Also, cancer patients
with unclear recurrence status had lower odds of herb-drug interaction
in comparison to patients with negative recurrence status (OR: 0.19,
95% CI: 0.04–0.89, P-value: 0.03) (Table 3).