Integrative medicine and perinatal outcomes among women giving birth: A national population-based study in South Korea

Background: The aim of this study was to examine the effects of integrative medicine (IM) on perinatal outcomes and health care utilization in women who gave birth in Korea. Methods: This study used National Health Insurance Sharing Service (NHISS) claims data and established a retrospective cohort...

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Main Authors: Seongju Kim, Jiae Choi, Hye Won Lee, Sunju Park
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Elsevier 2025-06-01
Series:Integrative Medicine Research
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Online Access:http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2213422025000150
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author Seongju Kim
Jiae Choi
Hye Won Lee
Sunju Park
author_facet Seongju Kim
Jiae Choi
Hye Won Lee
Sunju Park
author_sort Seongju Kim
collection DOAJ
description Background: The aim of this study was to examine the effects of integrative medicine (IM) on perinatal outcomes and health care utilization in women who gave birth in Korea. Methods: This study used National Health Insurance Sharing Service (NHISS) claims data and established a retrospective cohort of all women who gave birth in Korea from January to December 2021. The women were categorized into IM and conventional medicine (CM) groups according to the nature of their health institution visits before delivery. To assess the risk of adverse perinatal outcomes between the two groups, a logistic regression model was used to estimate the odds ratio (OR) and the corresponding 95 % confidence interval (CI). Results: A total of 171,136 women were divided into the IM (n = 91,902) and CM (n = 79,234) groups. Among the 9,608,545 claims analyzed, respiratory system disease was the most common primary diagnosis, followed by genitourinary system diseases. In the IM group, 19,153 claims were associated with infertility diagnosis codes, with the most frequent primary diagnoses being female infertility associated with anovulation and female infertility of other origins. Compared with the CM group, the IM group had significantly greater rates of assisted reproductive technology (ART) use (aOR, 1.25 [95 % CI, 1.21, 1.29]; P < 0.0001) and cesarean delivery (aOR, 1.08 [95 % CI, 1.06, 1.11]; P < 0.0001). Conclusion: The study findings support that dual health care system use is not associated with the health outcomes of women who gave birth. The findings are expected to be valuable for establishing national health and medical policies or promoting health care utilization for women who give birth in South Korea.
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spelling doaj-art-c3affa257fcf4318b7909e5c0a69c4f12025-08-20T02:50:56ZengElsevierIntegrative Medicine Research2213-42202025-06-0114210113510.1016/j.imr.2025.101135Integrative medicine and perinatal outcomes among women giving birth: A national population-based study in South KoreaSeongju Kim0Jiae Choi1Hye Won Lee2Sunju Park3Department of Preventive Medicine, College of Korean Medicine, Daejeon University, Daejeon, South KoreaDepartment of Preventive Medicine, College of Medicine, Korea University, Seoul, South KoreaKorean Medicine Convergence Research Division, Korea Institute of Oriental Medicine, Daejeon, South KoreaDepartment of Preventive Medicine, College of Korean Medicine, Daejeon University, Daejeon, South Korea; Corresponding author: Department of Preventive Medicine, College of Korean Medicine, Daejeon University, 62 Daehak-ro, Dong-gu, Daejeon 34520, South Korea.Background: The aim of this study was to examine the effects of integrative medicine (IM) on perinatal outcomes and health care utilization in women who gave birth in Korea. Methods: This study used National Health Insurance Sharing Service (NHISS) claims data and established a retrospective cohort of all women who gave birth in Korea from January to December 2021. The women were categorized into IM and conventional medicine (CM) groups according to the nature of their health institution visits before delivery. To assess the risk of adverse perinatal outcomes between the two groups, a logistic regression model was used to estimate the odds ratio (OR) and the corresponding 95 % confidence interval (CI). Results: A total of 171,136 women were divided into the IM (n = 91,902) and CM (n = 79,234) groups. Among the 9,608,545 claims analyzed, respiratory system disease was the most common primary diagnosis, followed by genitourinary system diseases. In the IM group, 19,153 claims were associated with infertility diagnosis codes, with the most frequent primary diagnoses being female infertility associated with anovulation and female infertility of other origins. Compared with the CM group, the IM group had significantly greater rates of assisted reproductive technology (ART) use (aOR, 1.25 [95 % CI, 1.21, 1.29]; P < 0.0001) and cesarean delivery (aOR, 1.08 [95 % CI, 1.06, 1.11]; P < 0.0001). Conclusion: The study findings support that dual health care system use is not associated with the health outcomes of women who gave birth. The findings are expected to be valuable for establishing national health and medical policies or promoting health care utilization for women who give birth in South Korea.http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2213422025000150Conventional medicineDelivery womenInfertilityIntegrative medicinePerinatal outcome
spellingShingle Seongju Kim
Jiae Choi
Hye Won Lee
Sunju Park
Integrative medicine and perinatal outcomes among women giving birth: A national population-based study in South Korea
Integrative Medicine Research
Conventional medicine
Delivery women
Infertility
Integrative medicine
Perinatal outcome
title Integrative medicine and perinatal outcomes among women giving birth: A national population-based study in South Korea
title_full Integrative medicine and perinatal outcomes among women giving birth: A national population-based study in South Korea
title_fullStr Integrative medicine and perinatal outcomes among women giving birth: A national population-based study in South Korea
title_full_unstemmed Integrative medicine and perinatal outcomes among women giving birth: A national population-based study in South Korea
title_short Integrative medicine and perinatal outcomes among women giving birth: A national population-based study in South Korea
title_sort integrative medicine and perinatal outcomes among women giving birth a national population based study in south korea
topic Conventional medicine
Delivery women
Infertility
Integrative medicine
Perinatal outcome
url http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2213422025000150
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