Kang B, Chu H, Youn BY, Leem J. Prevention and management of adverse events following COVID-19 vaccination using traditional Korean medicine: An online survey of public health doctors . World J Clin Cases 2022; 10(28): 10053-10065 [PMID: 36246807 DOI: 10.12998/wjcc.v10.i28.10053]
Corresponding Author of This Article
Jungtae Leem, KMD&PhD, Professor, College of Korean Medicine, Wonkwang University, 460, Iksan-daero, Sin-dong, Iksan, Jeollabuk-do, South Korea. julcho@naver.com
Research Domain of This Article
Integrative & Complementary Medicine
Article-Type of This Article
Retrospective Study
Open-Access Policy of This Article
This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
World J Clin Cases. Oct 6, 2022; 10(28): 10053-10065 Published online Oct 6, 2022. doi: 10.12998/wjcc.v10.i28.10053
Prevention and management of adverse events following COVID-19 vaccination using traditional Korean medicine: An online survey of public health doctors
Byungsoo Kang, College of Korean Medicine, Dongshin University, Naju-si 58245, South Korea
Hongmin Chu, Daecheong Public Health Subcenter, Ongjin Public Healthcenter, Incheon 23105, Incheon, South Korea
Bo-Young Youn, Department of Preventive Medicine, College of Korean Medicine, Kyung Hee University, Seoul 02447, South Korea
Jungtae Leem, College of Korean Medicine, Wonkwang University, Iksan 54538, Jeollabuk-do, South Korea
Author contributions: Kang B and Leem J conceptualized the manuscript and contributed to data curation; Chu H and Kang B contributed to methodology and original drafting of the manuscript; Youn B reviewed the writing and contributed to manuscript drafting; all authors read and approved the final version of the manuscript.
Supported byNational Research Foundation of Korea grant funded by the Korea, No. 2022R1C1C200873811.
Institutional review board statement: This study was approved by the Institutional Review Board of College of KM of Wonkwang University for the online survey protocol (WKIRB-202104-SB-022). Participants were recruited by the association and encouraged to read the questionnaire carefully.
Conflict-of-interest statement: All the authors report no relevant conflicts of interest for this article.
Data sharing statement: The data used for this study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: https://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Jungtae Leem, KMD&PhD, Professor, College of Korean Medicine, Wonkwang University, 460, Iksan-daero, Sin-dong, Iksan, Jeollabuk-do, South Korea. julcho@naver.com
Received: April 5, 2022 Peer-review started: April 5, 2022 First decision: June 7, 2022 Revised: June 14, 2022 Accepted: August 22, 2022 Article in press: August 22, 2022 Published online: October 6, 2022 Processing time: 175 Days and 5.9 Hours
ARTICLE HIGHLIGHTS
Research background
This study aimed to perform a questionnaire survey about the prevention and management of adverse events (AEs) of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) vaccination among public health doctors of Korean Medicine (PHDKMs).
Research motivation
The study results will be used as a basis for Korean medicine doctors (KMDs) to understand how the AEs of vaccines could be managed; in addition, the results of the PHDKMs’ attitudes could be utilized as fundamental data for managing AEs of future vaccines in complementary and alternative medicine.
Research objectives
We developed an online questionnaire of AEs of vaccination and perception of using Korean medicine (KM) in managing AEs of vaccination among PHDKMs.
Research methods
The survey web-link was emailed to the association of PHDKMs. Online links were sent through Survey Monkey to all PHDKMs.
Research results
A total of 143 participants were recruited for this study.
Research conclusions
Our research demonstrates a high prevalence of herbal medicine and acupuncture treatment usage by the PHDKMs. PHDKMs are also highly intended to use herbal medicine and acupuncture to prevent and manage the side effects of vaccination. Hence, this study's results may serve as fundamental evidence for health professionals to consider using KM treatments when treating or preventing AEs from vaccination for control of the pandemic of another infectious disease in the near future.
Research perspectives
From a clinical perspective, PHDKMs recommend herbal medicine and acupuncture for management of the AEs of vaccination. In order to increase the vaccination rate when a new infectious disease is prevalent, herbal medicine or acupuncture should be actively used to manage the side effects of vaccination. In terms of clinical research, prospective, controlled, and multi-site clinical studies are needed to explore what kind of herbal prescription is effective for each side effect.
