Division of Humanities and Social Medicine, School of Korean Medicine, Pusan National University, Yangsan, South Korea.
Department of Korean Medicine, Danasa Nursing Hospital, Busan, South Korea.
BMC Complement Med Ther. 2022 Jun 26;22(1):175. doi: 10.1186/s12906-022-03634-w.
Traditional Korean Medicine (TKM) is highly integrated with the modern health care system of South Korea and is actively used in the public health field. Since 2014, the Ministry of Health and Welfare of South Korea has supported the development of standard models for TKM-based health promotion programs. This study aimed to develop and evaluate a standard TKM-based health promotion program for disadvantaged children.
Using convenience sampling, we recruited 16 Community Children's Centers (CCCs) located in Busan and Yangsan, South Korea, which are welfare daytime facilities for children from socially disadvantaged families. The CCCs were divided into two groups of eight CCCs-intervention CCCs and control CCCs-through random allocation, and children in each group were selected as subjects for the study. For 12 weeks, the TKM-based health promotion program developed in this study along with the basic services of CCCs were applied to children in the intervention group, and only the basic services of CCCs were provided to children in the control group. Data were obtained through pre- and post-surveys with the legal representatives of the children prior to implementing the program and after the 12-week program, respectively. The outcome variables-the number of outpatient visits, absences, lateness/early leaves, infectious symptoms, and EuroQol-5D and EQ-visual analog scale scores-were measured and statistically compared between the groups by descriptive analysis, chi-square test, t-test, and difference-in-differences model with regression analysis.
At baseline, there were 156 children in the intervention group and 153 children in the control group, among which 155 and 147 children, respectively, were included in the analysis. Results indicated that the number of outpatient visits was significantly lower (by 65%) in the intervention group than in the control group (p = 0.03), and this was similar in the sensitivity analysis. Regarding other outcome variables, the effects were not consistently significant.
A standard TKM-based health promotion program has the potential to improve the health of disadvantaged children. In the future, studies with long-term interventions and a larger sample are needed to enhance the applicability of these programs in communities.
传统的韩国医学（TKM）与韩国的现代医疗体系高度融合，并在公共卫生领域得到积极应用。自 2014 年以来，韩国保健福祉部一直支持制定 TKM 为基础的健康促进项目的标准模式。本研究旨在为弱势儿童开发和评估基于 TKM 的标准健康促进计划。
使用便利抽样，我们招募了位于韩国釜山和牙山的 16 个社区儿童中心（CCC），这些中心是为社会弱势家庭的儿童提供福利日间服务的设施。通过随机分配，CCC 分为两组，即干预组 CCC 和对照组 CCC，每组 8 个 CCC，每组的儿童均被选为研究对象。在 12 周内，对干预组的儿童应用了本研究开发的基于 TKM 的健康促进计划以及 CCC 的基本服务，而对照组的儿童仅提供 CCC 的基本服务。在实施计划之前和 12 周后，分别通过儿童的法定代表人进行了计划前后的调查，以获得数据。通过描述性分析、卡方检验、t 检验和差分差异模型与回归分析，对两组之间的结果变量（门诊就诊次数、缺勤、迟到/早退、感染症状、EuroQol-5D 和 EQ-视觉模拟量表评分）进行了测量和统计比较。
在基线时，干预组有 156 名儿童，对照组有 153 名儿童，其中分别有 155 名和 147 名儿童纳入分析。结果表明，干预组的门诊就诊次数明显低于对照组（减少了 65%）（p = 0.03），在敏感性分析中也是如此。关于其他结果变量，效果并不一致显著。
基于 TKM 的标准健康促进计划有改善弱势儿童健康的潜力。未来，需要进行长期干预和更大样本的研究，以提高这些计划在社区中的适用性。
