Statistical Analysis of Outpatients Trends at Korean Medicine Hospitals of Daejeon University by Region before and after COVID-19

Abstract

Objectives: This study is designed to statistically analyze data of outpatients visiting for recent 3 years. The purpose is to identify tendencies of patients who visit the hospitals before and after COVID-19. Methods: This study retrospectively analyzed the medical records of 452,487 patients who visited to the Daejeon·Cheonan·Cheongju Korean Medicine Hospital of Daejeon University from January 1, 2018 to August 31, 2020. The data is classified according to year, month, gender, age, and visit type. The statistical analysis was performed using IBM SPSS 25.0. Results: The total number of patients decreased in 2020 compared to before 2020, and the number of patients in each hospital also decreased from the previous year. According to the year of each hospital, the difference by year was not statistically significant at Daejeon Hospital, but Cheonan and Cheongju Hospital showed statistical difference. The change in monthly according to the year by hospital has continued to decrease from January to March in 2020, unlike the previous year, which recovered from a decline in March. In the analysis of patients by age, there was no statistically significant difference in the number of patients in the above 60s according to the year, while those under 60s have a tendency to significantly decrease.. Conclusion: We expect that the results of this study will be used as reference materials in analyzing effects of COVID-19 at health care utilization.

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

“…Large decreases were recorded in the number of patients using Korean medicine (decreased by 12.5%) after the outbreak of COVID-19 [4]. For example the number of first-time patients visiting the Department of Acupuncture and Moxibustion at the Korean medicine hospital in Daejeon decreased by 15.2% [21]. We also demonstrated that the series of COVID-19 waves did not overlap with the timing of decline in patient numbers by month.…”

“…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.…”