Analysis of factors affecting Korean Medicine utilization of multicultural family members

Abstract

Objectives: This study aimed to analyze the Korean medical utilization and Korean medical expenses by characteristics of multicultural family members to investigate whether it affects Korean medical utilization.Methods: This study utilized The Korea Health Panel data in 2018, with 238 final participants. We performed a t-test and ANOVA on the difference between Korean medical utilization and Korean medical expenses according to Anderson’s Model of Health Service Utilization variables. Logistic regression analysis and generalized linear model analysis were conducted to analyze Korean medical utilization factors.Results: The Korean Medical utilization was 12.61% among the multicultural family members. As a result of regression analysis, the female had high Korean medical utilization(p=.008), and rural area residents had low utilization(p=.017). Korean medical expenses were high when they were female or married. Including the utilization of western medical services by outpatients, Korean medical expenses were high when they were female or outpatients who received western medical services.Conclusions: As a result of this study, the factors influencing Korean medical utilization were gender and residence area. There were differences in Korean medical expenses depending on western medical services use or gender. Therefore, it is necessary to use these factors to expand the Korean Medical utilization by multicultural family members, and research of the Korean medical utilization by disease is needed.