Abstract
This study was conducted to analyze community residents' behavior of Oriental medicine utilization and its related factors in order to provide basic data for formulation of policies on Oriental medicine. The subjects of this study was 500 residents who lived in big or medium sized cities and towns or villages Data were collected from March, 2002 to June, 2002. The results of this study can be summarized as follows. 1) According to socio-demographic characteristics of the respondents, female was 50.3%; 'over 50 years old' 29.9%, 'over college graduate' 39.7%, 'housewife' 23.0%, 'having spouse' 62.1%, 'Buddhist' 50.8%, 'living in big cities' 59.0%, 'middle economic class' 88.1%. 2) The highest proportion of frequency of Oriental medicine utilization was over 10 times(32.5%). The respondents visited Oriental medicine institutions for taking invigorant(51.1%), treatment of diseases in muscle or bone system(30.8%), treatment of diseases in digestive system(6.3%), etc. 3) According to the reasons of utilizing Oriental medicine, the proportion of good effect was highest(36.3%). 66.8% of the respondents replied that Oriental medical fee was expensive, while 0.8% of them replied that it was not expensive. 33.3% of them thought it was proper. 4) 35.5% of the respondents replied that treatment by Oriental medicine could cause side effect and 40.3% of them replied that the side effect could be caused by taking herb medicine. 5) 62.8% of the respondents replied that they would continuously receive opinions on Oriental medicine. The score of knowledge level of treatment by Oriental medicine $6.25{\pm}2.82$ points on the basis of 14 points. 6) The variables significantly influencing utilization of Oriental medicine includes taking diseases, living in big cities, male, upper (economic class, having religion, and effect of Oriental medicine. 7) The factors affecting effect of herb medicine were effect of treatment by Oriental medicine, marital status, knowledge level of Oriental medicine, having diseases, and frequency of receiving the treatment.