The Use of Traditional Korean Medicine (TKM) by Children: A Correlational Study between Parent's Perception and Their Children's Use Reported by Parents.

Jihye Kim,Eun-Jin Lee,Jung-Youn Park,Soo-Hyun Sung,Jang-Kyung Park

doi:10.3390/healthcare9040385

Abstract

This cross-sectional study investigated the correlation between parents’ perception and their children’s traditional Korean medicine (TKM) use reported by parents in order to discover policy intervention points and provide a reference for establishing generalized TKM policies. Participant data from a 2017 national survey on TKM usage was divided into two groups based on the children’s TKM use reported by parents. The female participants’ children had a higher rate of experience in using TKM (8.1%; p = 0.029). Additionally, 91.4% of the parent group with a child who used TKM turned out to have used TKM, which was higher than 71.9% of the parents whose children never used TKM (p < 0.001). As for the awareness on the use of TKM, 44.0% of the parents with a child who experienced TKM answered they were aware of it, while only 35.3% of the parent group whose child never experienced TKM did so (p = 0.033). The present study suggests that parental experience in using TKM could have an impact on the children’s TKM use reported by parents. Further study is necessary to assess which parental factor (awareness level, medical disorder to be treated, therapy, therapeutic efficacy, the purpose of visit, sex, age, etc.) has a close relationship with TKM usage experience of their children.

Highlights

Complementary and Alternative Medicine (CAM), which is not considered to be part of conventional medicine, is a compilation of knowledge, skills, and practices which are based on the theories, beliefs, and experiences indigenous to different cultures and used for health maintenance and in the prevention, diagnosis, improvement, or treatment of physical and mental illness [1,2,3]
As for the survey data, the researchers made a request for micro-data through the surveys on the traditional herbal medicines consumption and the Traditional Korean medicine (TKM) usage database run by the National Institute of Korean Medicine Development (NIKOM)
In this study, which was based on the assumption that the experience, opinion, or ideas of parents may influence the use of TKM by their children, the participants were divided into groups based on whether their children had experienced using TKM or not; comparisons were made to evaluate whether these groups showed any differences in terms of the characteristics, awareness, or satisfaction of the parents

Summary

Introduction

Complementary and Alternative Medicine (CAM), which is not considered to be part of conventional medicine, is a compilation of knowledge, skills, and practices which are based on the theories, beliefs, and experiences indigenous to different cultures and used for health maintenance and in the prevention, diagnosis, improvement, or treatment of physical and mental illness [1,2,3]. In EastAsian countries such as South Korea and China, traditional medicine has been the form of medical care treating the diseases of the people. It is still taking a crucial part in health care along with conventional medicine (CM) [7,8].

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