Abstract
This study was conducted to examine utilization patterns and determinants of oriental medical services. Data were collected from 545 residents in Taegu city The results of this study are summarized as follows 1) 37.8% of subjects used oriental medical services in the past year. Especially, the female, the ages of 50 and 60 over, the single. low-educated. high-income class, white-collar class, medical insured tended to use more oriental medical services than another groups. 2) 46.7% of users of oriental medical services reported that number of visits in the past year was 2 - 5 times 37 1% of them was 1 times, and 4.5% over 10 times. 3) According to the reasons to choose the oriental medical facilities, most was 'on their own judgement'(48.8%) and 'by the advice of relatives and friends'(42.0%) Regarding to the objectives of using oriental medicine, 68.3% was 'treatment', 31.7% 'health counselling and promotion'. And among diseases of users, diseases of musculo-skeletal system was the highest(54.5%). 4) 57.9% of oriental medical services users had experience of utilizing western medicine on the same diseases. Among peoples with experiencing western medicine on the same diseases. 54.4% received oriental medical services 'in addition to western medicine', 45.6%'in place of western medicine 'And 41.2% of using both services reported that they had difficulty in deciding to choose the type of services -oriental medical services or western medicine-for their diseases. 37.3% of them answered that 'providing relevant information' was the most desirable measure to solve this problem, 27.3% 'establishment of effective referral system between oriental and western medical facilities '23.6% 'cooperative medical treatment systems in the same facilities', 11.8%'integration of oriental medicine into western medicine 5) According to the satisfaction level with each items of oriental medical services, the respondents had positive views on efficacy, kindness, and side-effects. They, however, had negative view on the cost of oriental medical services. 6) In regarding to the priority of improvement of oriental medical system,'expansion of insurance benefit package 'ranked first. 'expansion of insurance benefit Package 'ranked second, 'improvement of scientific methods and diagnostic technique 'third, and 'safety of herbal medicine' fourth in order. 7) The significant factors influencing the utilization of oriental medical services were kindness of oriental medical practitioners, efficacy , travel time, age To be brief, utilization rate of oriental medical services in urban area generally tends to be high. There, however, have been various barriers to limit oriental medical services, such as incomplete benefit package of oriental medical insurance and lack of coordination and referral system between oriental and western medical services, lack of scientific diagnostic procedures, high price etc . For the development of oriental medical services, Much attention to remove these limiting factors should be placed. In addition, kindness of oriental medical practitioners , which is expected to be more important factor in the consumer - focused health care environment than ever, should be kept high consistently. Since this study was conducted for specific residents of an urban city. further research including more sampling in different urban areas should be required to generalize the results of the study.