A nationwide survey on the management of the COVID-19 pandemic and respiratory disease in South Korea

Lin Ang; Mi Hong Yim; Eunhye Song; Hye Won Lee; Hyangsook Lee; Tae-Hun Kim; Merlin Willcox; Xiao-Yang Hu; Joelle Houriet; Bertrand Graz; Je-Won Lee; Yunho Jang; Jung Tae Kim; Eunsop Kim; Yong Hee Park; Myeong Soo Lee

doi:10.3389/fmed.2022.965651

A nationwide survey on the management of the COVID-19 pandemic and respiratory disease in South Korea

Front Med (Lausanne). 2022 Sep 23:9:965651. doi: 10.3389/fmed.2022.965651. eCollection 2022.

Authors

Lin Ang¹, Mi Hong Yim², Eunhye Song³, Hye Won Lee⁴, Hyangsook Lee⁵, Tae-Hun Kim⁶, Merlin Willcox⁷, Xiao-Yang Hu⁷, Joelle Houriet⁸, Bertrand Graz⁸, Je-Won Lee⁹, Yunho Jang¹⁰, Jung Tae Kim¹¹, Eunsop Kim¹², Yong Hee Park¹³, Myeong Soo Lee¹

Affiliations

¹ KM Science Research Division, Korea Institute of Oriental Medicine, Daejeon, South Korea.
² Digital Health Research Division, Korea Institute of Oriental Medicine, Daejeon, South Korea.
³ Global Cooperation Center, Korea Institute of Oriental Medicine, Daejeon, South Korea.
⁴ KM Convergence Research Division, Korea Institute of Oriental Medicine, Daejeon, South Korea.
⁵ Korean Medicine Convergence Research Information Center, College of Korean Medicine, Kyung Hee University, Seoul, South Korea.
⁶ Department of Clinical Korean Medicine, Graduate School, Kyung Hee University, Seoul, South Korea.
⁷ School of Primary Care, Population Sciences and Medical Education, Faculty of Medicine, University of Southampton, Southampton, United Kingdom.
⁸ Antenna Foundation, Geneva, Switzerland.
⁹ BM Korean Internal Medicine Clinic, Daegu, South Korea.
¹⁰ Changpo Kyunghee Clinic, Pohang, South Korea.
¹¹ I-MOM Korean Medicine Clinic, Jeju, South Korea.
¹² You and Green Korean Medical Clinic, Daejeon, South Korea.
¹³ You and Green Korean Medical Clinic, Busan, South Korea.

Abstract

Background: This study aimed to explore individual prevalence of respiratory symptoms and to describe the Korean population's treatment approaches, preventive health behaviors, and mental health conditions during the pandemic.

Methods: We analyzed responses from an online nationwide survey, conducted between February 2021 to May 2021, about people's experiences during the pandemic. Statistical analysis was also performed to see if there were any significant differences in treatment and prevention strategies between different groups of respondents (between those had respiratory symptoms, compared with those who did not, and between those tested positive for COVID-19, compared with those who did not).

Results: A total of 2,177 survey respondents completed the survey and, of these, only 142 had experienced symptoms. The most frequently reported respiratory infections related symptoms were runny or blocked nose (47.6%), cough (45.5%), fever (44.1%), sore throat (42.0%), and fatigue (30.1%). More than half of the respondents (53.1%) used complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) approaches as means of preventive measures. In terms of preventive behaviors, the more emphasized behaviors were mask-wearing (58.9%) and hand-washing after coming home (42.7%). The majority of the respondents (64.9%) did not show signs of mental health issues.

Conclusion: In South Korea, conventional medicine was mainly used for COVID-19 treatment whereas CAM was commonly used as preventive measures. COVID-19 was also found to have less impact on the general population's mental health. The findings of this study may shed light on how the pandemic impacted the general population.

Keywords: COVID-19; behavior; health care; public health; social measures; wellbeing.