• Korean Journal of Adult Nursing
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• v.14 no.2
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• pp.184-193
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• 2002

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to assess the characteristics of the user of complementary alternative therapies(CAT) and to identify the important predictive factors associated with them. Method: This study included 142 patients attending outpatient rheumatology clinics of D Hospital in Busan between July and August in 2001. The multiple logistic regression model was developed to estimate the likelihood of user or nonuser of CAT. Result: The duration of illness and chance score of health locus of control were found to be significant factors through the estimated coefficients of using CAT. Duration of illness is longer and chance score of health locus of control is higher in patients who have used CAT in past than that of nonuser. When the model performance was evaluated by comparing the observed outcome with predicted outcome, the model correctly identified 95% of user of CAT and 31% of nonuser. Conclusion: In this survey, duration of illness and chance score of health locus of control are found to be significant factors in predicting utilization of CAT. Nurses who care for rheumatoid arthritis patients should take consideration into health locus of control in planning health education programs.

• Asian Oncology Nursing
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• v.9 no.1
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• pp.67-75
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• 2009

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to analyze nursing research trends on the complementary and alternative therapies (CAT) for the cancer patients in Korea. Method: Thirty eight articles published in 17 nursing-related journal from 1987 to 2008 were analyzed. Results: Nursing Researches on CAT for the cancer patients have increased since 2000. Among the 38 studies, 34 studies used Quasi-experimental design and 13 studies (33%) were conducted for the breast cancer patients. Mind-body therapy (53%), manual healing therapy (42%), and pharmacologic and biological therapy (5%) were the often used CAT types. Nausea, vomiting, vital signs, immune cell, pain, and fatigue were measured as physiologic outcome variables; anxiety, depression, and hope as psychological outcome variables; and quality of life as social outcome variables. Conclusion: More CAM studies are needed targeting the patients with various cancer types and home-based cancer patients.

• Korean Journal of Health Education and Promotion
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• v.20 no.4
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• pp.27-40
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• 2003

Objective： To determine second, third and fourth-year medical students' opinions and knowledge related to complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) in a school with no requirement or elective course on the subject. Study Design： A questionnaire was offered to second, third and fourth-year medical students of the Medical College of Kosin University from August 7th, through August 30th, 2003. Results： Most students had been exposed to CAM therapies, knew that the majority of the South Korean public was using CAM, believed that some CAM interventions were useful, and did not believe CAM therapies were a threat to public health. Only one fifth of the students(22.5％) disagreed that they had to have requirement or elective course on CAM in their curriculum. Most students had insufficient knowledge or understanding of the safety or lack of it for ten of the more common CAM modalities. Most respondents thought these interventions were useful, but would not refer a patient nor dissuade a patient from seeking out such interventions. Conclusion： Medical students in this school self-identified an interest about the clinical usefulness of ten CAM modalities, but did not have sufficient knowledge about the safety for ten of the more common CAM modalities. Including CAM topics in the medical school curriculum would better prepare physicians to respond to patient inquiries about CAM and thereby to fulfill their role as patient advocates.

• Journal of East-West Nursing Research
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• v.16 no.1
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• pp.11-18
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• 2010

Purpose: The aim of this study was to examine the characteristics of hypertension-related nursing intervention programs and their effects on systolic and diastolic blood pressure. Methods: Fifteen studies were selected from four databases (Korean studies, Riss4U, RICHIS, and JKAN) published as of 2009. They were analyzed by meta-analysis method. The selected studies contained a control group with pre-test and post-test design, measured blood pressure as a dependent variable, and used a reported statistical value for blood pressure to measure the size of effects. Results: The hypertension-related nursing intervention programs were relatively effective in lowering both systolic and diastolic blood pressure, although they were more efficient to decrease diastolic pressure. Among the hypertension-related intervention programs, complementary and alternative therapies were more effective in lowering blood pressure compared to lifestyle change intervention. Conclusions: To acquire substantial data of intervention effects, and complementary and alternative therapy, subjects in pre-hypertensive stage, and elderly people, better industrial and scholastic research methods need to be developed for future research. Further studies are needed to establish complementary and alternative therapies. Studies with different group of participants and studies using effective research design are in need as well.

• The Journal of Korean Obstetrics and Gynecology
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• v.21 no.3
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• pp.167-178
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• 2008

Purpose: Many breastfeeding women have used complementary and alternative medicine, but the guideline for lactation does not exist on complementary medicine. This study is to investigate efficacy and safety of complementary and alternative medicine in breastfeeding. Methods: We searched for papers which had breastfeeding, complementary medicine, acupuncture and herb in the pubmed, scopus site and Korean journals. Results: 38 papers were found. Acupuncture could have the efficacy on hypogalatia and mastitis. Compound herb therapy had effect on hypogalactia, but none of herbs were investigated for safety all except for St John's wort. So more clinical trials about herbs would be needed. Massage and the other complementary therapies would be helpful for breastfeeding mother. Conclusion: Acupuncture could be a good treatment for hypogalactia and inflammation of the breast. For making guidelines on complementary and alternative medicine during lactation, more research will be needed.

• The Journal of Korean Medicine
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• v.29 no.4
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• pp.47-54
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• 2008

Objective: The purpose of this study was to investigate the disease burden of cancer, to investigate how many cancer patients use CAM (complementary and alternative medicine) therapies with or without conventional medicine, to know reasons for use of cancer CAM therapies, and finally to discuss viewpoints on treating cancer with traditional Korean medicine (TKM). Method: In order to know the disease burden of cancer, the prevalence and mortality of cancer patients of Korean, American, and WHO reports were investigated, and the usage of cancer CAM therapies was investigated in several reports. The viewpoints about cancer treatment with TKM were suggested with the characteristics of TKM. Results: One hundred thousand Korean people were diagnosed [in time period] as new cancer patients, and cancer patients are gradually increasing every year. Cancer is a leading cause of deaths in Korea and worldwide. From 21% to 63% of Korean cancer patients, 80% of American cancer patients, and 35.9% of European cancer patients used CAM therapies, and the most common therapy was an herbal therapy. Conclusions: TKM has been used to treat cancer since initial use of acupuncture and herbs with basic viewpoints on human health and disease. First, TKM regards occurrence of cancer as an environmental problem of the whole human being. Second, the pathologic concept centered on antipathogenic Qi (Zheong Qi) can reinforce the functioning of the patient's own natural vitality to overcome cancer. Third, TKM deals with cancer patients through mind, body, and spirit based on the monoism of mind and body.

• Journal of Society of Preventive Korean Medicine
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• v.12 no.3
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• pp.141-155
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• 2008

Traditional, complementary, and alternative medicine(CAM) constitutes a major source of health care in developing countries. Its therapies, products and practices are increasing used in industrialized countries, typically by around 50% of the population. However, controls on the provider of CAM services and supply and promotion of complementary medicines are weak in these countries. These trends evoke important public health questions relating to benefits and detriments, safety and quality from medical, financial, and social perspectives. In the western counties, investment in research is increasing, and some guideline is now available for ensuring their quality, efficacy, and safety according to the criteria of evidence-based medicine as legally demanded. National policies and legislation are being developed in many countries and often include partnerships between biomedical and traditional health practitioners. The purposes of the study were to review the policies on CAM, to examine the responses of the government to cope with use of CAM in industrialized countries. Lastly, some implications and recommendation are suggested.

• The Journal of Korean Medicine
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• v.25 no.1
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• pp.142-151
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• 2004

Objectives : To document the use and out-of-pocket expenditure of complementary and alternative medicine(CAM) in Korean adult population. Methods : Nationwide, random-sampled, and population-weighted telephone survey was conducted. The sample size of respondents was 1,000(age over 18). The respondents were asked about their use, out-of pocket expenditure of CAM in the past 12 months. SAS 8.0 statistic package was used for checking the relevance between each variables by performing $x^2-test$ and variance evaluation. Results : In 2001, 64.0% of people experienced more than one alternative therapy and the beneficiary took therapy average figure of 2.07. Alternative therapies were generally used for health promotion(73.7%) rather than curing the disease(26.3%). The most common therapies included Medication(30.2%), Physical-therapy(21.9%) health implements(20.8%), herb medication(19.2%), diet therapy(14.3%) etc. Average annual out-of-pocket expenditure was ￡<192,186. Use varied according to age, living province, income, and education, while cost expenditure did according to sex, health condition, income, education. Conclusions : The use of CAM in Korea is very large and the expenditure for them is 22.6% of national medical expenditure. It shows great need of political and academic approach.

• Journal of Korean Academy of Fundamentals of Nursing
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• v.13 no.2
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• pp.275-284
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• 2006

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to analyze tile trends in physiological variables in CAT research in nursing in Korea. Method: Of studies published in Korea between January, 2000 and December, 2005, 227 studies were analyzed according to the criteria of type, theme, and patterns in physiological variables related to CAT. Results: There were 72 articles on CAT research in which physiological variables were examined. The most frequently researched type of CAT was massage and in particular, foot massage. The most frequently used physiological variables in CAT research were blood pressure, pulse, and body temperature. Patients with high blood pressure were the most frequent subjects for CAT research. As to the effect of physiological variable by CAT type, foot massage showed a decline in blood pressure in all six research studies involving patients with high blood pressure. Conclusion: There is a need to describe accurately the mechanism by which CAT affects physiological variables. There is also a need for repetitive analysis to verify the effect, and meta-analysis for the effect on physiological variables according to type of CAT.

• The Journal of Korean Medicine
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• v.25 no.4
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• pp.152-160
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• 2004

Objective : Recently, an increasing portion of cancer patients use various therapies of complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) including traditional oriental medicine, which is believed to improve the consequence of cancer according to clinical experience and laboratory data. But the clinical-based systemic statistic validity of these therapies is lacking, so this study was aimed to validate the traditional oriental therapies (TOT) for terminally ill cancer patients. Patients and methods : This retrospective study was performed on 273 patients who were diagnosed with terminally ill cancer in Korea and treated with TOT in the oriental hospital of Daejeon University, from March 1997 to June 2003. We examined the median duration of the terminal period and the correlations between 9 factors and survival of terminally ill cancer patients. Results : During the study period, we could confirm 142 patients' death (52.01%) in 273 subjects. The median length of survival in terminally ill cancer patients was 16 weeks (95%CI 14.0∼20.0) and 40.15% (95%CI 40.07∼40.22) of patients had survived more than 24 weeks. According to Cox's proportional hazard model including gender, age, conventional therapies (chemotherapy, radiotherapy and surgery), performance status and clinical symptoms as independent variables, history of conventional therapies (RR 0.581, 95%CI 0.381∼0.885), higher performance status (RR 1,855, 95%CI 1.454∼2.366) and absence of ascites and pleural effusion (RR 1.631, 95%CI 1.047∼2.538) showed independent prognostic value of survival. Conclusion : Our findings suggest that TOT offer potential benefits for cancer patients at the terminal stage.