Disease-specific differences in the use of traditional Korean medicine in Korea

In-Hwan Oh,Sohee An,Minjung Park,Seok-Jun Yoon

doi:10.1186/s12906-015-0657-9

Abstract

BackgroundThough traditional Korean medicine plays an important role in the Korean parallel health care system, there is limited information about the preference and usage of traditional Korean medicine compared to Western medicine because they have different disease classification systems. The aim of this study is to determine the relative preference for traditional Korean medicine using data acquired nationwide.MethodsData from the 2008 Korea Health Panel were analyzed to determine the preference of medical services by disease. The use of traditional Korean medicine use is defined by the type of medical institution they used. Disease types, number of visits and out of pocket expenditures were analyzed.ResultsTraditional Korean medicine was used in only a small number of cases that were emergencies or hospitalization. However, in terms of outpatient services, traditional Korean medicine was used in 7.8% of all cases and represented 9.9% of total medical costs. Among disease groups, traditional Korean medicine use was higher in patients with nervous system and musculoskeletal system diseases. And patients with musculoskeletal and nervous system diseases such as arthrosis were the most likely to use traditional Korean medicine particularly in an outpatient setting.ConclusionsKorean characteristics of service use resemble the complementary and alternative medicine use in other countries in terms of disease group, and the complementary and alternative medicine should be considered to estimate the burden of disease in countries with parallel health care systems, such as Korea. This is the first study determined the actual preference of traditional Korean medicine for specific chronic diseases.

Highlights

Though traditional Korean medicine plays an important role in the Korean parallel health care system, there is limited information about the preference and usage of traditional Korean medicine compared to Western medicine because they have different disease classification systems
The use of dental hospitals and clinics was defined as dental service use, and the use of other medical institutions not located in Korea, health care centers and sub-centers, health center county hospitals, and long term care hospitals was classified as other service use due to their mixed provision of both Western medicine and traditional Korean medicine (TKM)
According to the Korea Health Panel survey, 0.4 million US dollars were spent on TKM in 2008, which represents 9.9% of the total costs for outpatient services

Summary

Introduction

Though traditional Korean medicine plays an important role in the Korean parallel health care system, there is limited information about the preference and usage of traditional Korean medicine compared to Western medicine because they have different disease classification systems. In some Asian and African countries, 80% of the population use CAM for primary health care. Even in many developed countries, 70–80% of the population use at least some form of CAM [1]. In Europe, approximately 35% of cancer patients reported the use of some form of CAM, though prevalence of use varies by country [3]. CAM could be defined as “a group of diverse medical and health interventions, practices, or disciplines that are not generally considered part of conventional medicine” [4]. It could be grouped as natural products or mind

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