Comparative Analysis of Patients Visiting Department of Korean Internal Medicine in a Korean Medicine Hospital Before and During COVID-19 - From July 2018 to June 2021 at Wonkwang University Jeonju Korean Medicine Hospital -

Abstract

Objectives: This study aimed to analyze the healthcare utilization behavior of patients visiting the department of Korean internal medicine in the Korean medicine hospital of Wonkwang University in Jeon-ju from July 2018 to June 2021.Methods: We retrospectively analyzed the medical records of 26,108 patients and sorted the data by period, month, visiting types, new or returning types, sex, and age group. IBM SPSS 26.0 and the R 4.05 ‘changepoint' package were used with various statistical methods, such as Independent t-test, Mann-Whitney test, Chi-square test, Simple regression analysis. The P-value was set at 0.05.Results and Conclusions: Females outnumbered males regardless of period, and the ratio of females fell after COVID-19. Regardless of visiting types, patients in their 50s, 60s, and 70s outrated any other age group. The average number of females among the returning patients decreased significantly after COVID-19, but did not in males. Outpatients under 10 and in their 10s decreased significantly after COVID-19, as did inpatients in their 40s and 60s. The average duration of hospitalization was extended significantly after COVID-19. The number of outpatients and inpatients decreased as time passed after COVID-19. We expect that the results of this study will be used as reference materials in analyzing the effects of COVID-19 on healthcare utilization.

Characteristic Changes in First-Visit Patients with Peripheral Facial Palsy before and during COVID-19 Pandemic: A Single Center Retrospective Study

“…These results are consistent with the findings of a previous study that showed that the medical utilization rate among those under the age of 18 and those in their 20s-40s decreased significantly during the COVID-19 pandemic, while the rate of medical utilization rate among those aged 60 and older slightly decreased [32]. This result can be attributed to several complex factors, such as the tendency of older adults to maintain medical care utilization despite the pandemic, underestimation of subjective health conditions, and increase in the number of the population aged over 65 years every year [22,33].…”

“…The Korea Institute of Oriental Medicine published the results of its survey titled "Utilization of Korean Medicine and Consumption of Korean Medicine" in 2020 [20]. Several studies reported the trends of patients visiting Korean Medicine hospitals before and during the COVID-19 pandemic [21][22][23]. However, as far as we know, no previous study has investigated patients visiting a Korean Medicine hospital for a single disease, including facial palsy.…”

Characteristic Changes in First-Visit Patients with Peripheral Facial Palsy before and during COVID-19 Pandemic: Focused on a Korean Medicine Hospital

“…This JAR result is consistent with the results of a previous study showing that the use of medical services by those aged ≤ 18 years and those in their 20s-40s decreased significantly during the COVID-19 pandemic, whereas the utilization rate of patients aged ≥ 60 years decreased slightly [32]. This result can be attributed to several complex factors, such as the tendency of older adults to maintain medical care use despite the pandemic, underestimation of subjective health conditions, and an increase in the population aged > 65 years every year [22,33].…”

“…The Korea Institute of Oriental Medicine published the results of its survey titled "Utilization of Korean Medicine and Consumption of Korean Medicine" in 2020 [20]. Several studies reported the trends of patients visiting Korean medicine hospitals before and during the COVID-19 pandemic [21][22][23]. However, to the best of our knowledge, no previous study has investigated patients visiting a Korean medicine hospital for a single disease, including facial palsy.…”