Your browser does not support the NLM PubReader view.

Go to this page to see a list of supporting browsers.

A Study on the Characteristics of Korean Medicine Clinic Type through Latent Class Analysis

Article information

J Korean Med. 2025;46(1):42-56
Publication date (electronic) : 2025 March 01
doi : https://doi.org/10.13048/jkm.25004
Juchul Kim1orcid_icon, Hyunmin Kim2orcid_icon, Hong Jun-gil3orcid_icon, EunHee Yi4orcid_icon, Sohyun Kim5orcid_icon, Eunji Ahn6orcid_icon, Yooseon Park7,orcid_icon, Dongsu Kim8,orcid_icon
1Research Institute of Korean Medicine Policy, The Association of Korean Medicine
2,3,7Policy Development Center, National Institute for Korean Medicine Development
4Management Strategy Team, Korea Institute of Oriental Medicine
5Medical Association of Pharmacopunture Institute
6,8College of Korean Medicine, Dongshin University
Correspondence to: Yooseon Park, 12th floor, 173, Toegye-ro, Jung-gu, Seoul, Republic of Korea, Tel: +82-2-3393-4541, E-mail: parkys@nikom.or.kr
Correspondence to: Dongsu Kim, College of Korean Medicine, Dongshin University, 67, Dongsindae-gil, Naju-si, Jeollanam-do, Republic of Korea, Tel: +82-61-330-3258, E-mail: dskim20@dsu.ac.kr
Received 2024 December 30; Revised 2025 February 13; Accepted 2025 February 13.

Abstract

Objectives

The unprecedented COVID-19 pandemic around the world has resulted in a decrease in the number of patients visiting medical centers due to concerns about infectious diseases, and the decrease in sales of Korean medicine clinics has been reported to be the highest among the medical fields. This study aims to identify the types of Korean medicine clinics according to the main characteristics of their management using latent class analysis.

Methods

In order to distinguish the types of Korean medicine clinics and to find out the characteristics of each type, a latent class analysis was conducted on 1648 Korean medicine clinics that participated in the 2023 Korean Medicine Consumption Survey. Descriptive analysis was conducted for institutional characteristics, herbal medicine consumption patterns, and representative perception variables by type of Korean Medicine Clinic. Descriptive analyses were performed using the Analysis of Variance for continuous variables and the Chi-Square Test for nominal variables. All analyses were conducted using Stata and hypothesis tests were conducted at a significance level of 0.05.

Results

The types of Korean medicine clinics were categorized into three groups: ‘non-urban general Korean medicine clinics’, ‘urban general Korean medicine clinics’, and ‘Korean medicine clinics that prefer shared Herbal Medicine Dispensary’. The most common type of acupuncture clinic was at ‘urban general acupuncture clinic’ (47.80%), followed by ‘non-urban general acupuncture clinic (45.10%)’ and ‘acupuncture clinic with shared herbal medicine dispensary (7.10%)’. In terms of sales, ‘Korean medicine clinics with shared herbal medicine dispensary’ were 1.76 times more than ‘urban general Korean medicine clinics’ and 1.49 times more than ‘non-urban general Korean medicine clinics’, while ‘Korean medicine clinics with a shared herbal medicine dispensary prescribed more than twice as many herbal medicines and herbal supplements as other types. Although the shared herbal medicine dispensary preference’ clinics were less likely to be aware of the off-site herbal medicine dispensary certification system, they were the most likely to recognize the importance of certification when choosing a shared herbal medicine dispensary and were also likely to use a granted authorized herbal medicine dispensary.

Conclusion

This study categorized the types of Korean medicine clinics and examined their characteristics. These findings provide a cross-section of the management characteristics of Korean medicine clinics, and can be useful for future basic research on the relationship between Korean medicine clinic characteristics and management performance, and can be used as a reference for Korean medicine clinic management.

Keywords: Latent Class Analysis; Korean Medicine Clinic; Korean Medicine Consumption Survey
Fig. 1

Conditional Probability of Assignment to Categorization Variable by Latent Class Type of Korean Medicine Clinic

Variable Classification and Item

General Characteristics of the Target Korean Medicine Clinic (N=1,648)

Latent Class Analysis Model Fit Comparison

Conditional Response Probability of Each Type (N=1,648)

Institutional Characteristics by Type of Korean Medicine Clinic (N=1,648)

Characteristics of Herbal Medicine Consumption by Type of Korean Medicine Clinic (N=1,638)

Representative awareness by type of Korean medicine clinic (N=1648)

References

1. Birkmeyer JD., Barnato A., Birkmeyer N., Bessler R., Skinner J.. 2020;The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on hospital admissions in the United States: Study examines trends in US hospital admissions during the COVID-19 pandemic. Health Affairs 39(11):2010–2017. 10.1377/hlthaff.2020.00980.
2. Hana Financial Research Institute. 2020;Changes in consumer behavior caused by COVID-19
3. National Tax Service of Korea. n.d. National tax statistics portal Retrieved December 8, 2024, from https://stat.nts.go.kr.
4. Korea Health Insurance Review & Assessment Service. Status of opening and closure of medical institutions (2013–2019). HIRA Big Data Open System [serial online] n.d. [cited 2024 Dec 8]; [length of pages/screens, if applicable]. Available from: URL: https://opendata.hira.or.kr.
5. Bak YH., Kang BK., Shin HK.. 2014;Survey on the current status of the management of traditional Korean medical clinics and perception of the policies. The Journal of the Society of Korean Medicine Diagnostics 18(3):205–216.
6. Kim DH., Lim BM.. 2012;Trend analysis of financial balance of Korean medicine clinics during 20 years (1987~2007). Journal of Society of Preventive Korean Medicine 16(2):41–52.
7. Bae SY., Lee YH., Kim YH.. 2009;An analysis on convergence of the efficiency and productivity change in Korean university hospitals. Journal of Korea Service Management Society 10(3):53–95. 10.15706/jksms.2009.10.3.003.
8. Lim GJ., Choi JW., Jeong JW.. 2006. Business analysis of the practitioners’ offices in Korea 2005 Seoul, South Korea: Research Institute for Healthcare Policy.
9. Yoon KI., Jung WJ., Park YT., Jeon IK.. 1999. Enhancing operational efficiency through the activation of inter-hospital cooperation Korea Institute for Health and Social Affairs.
10. Kim KJ.. 2002;Differences in collaborative performance of small hospitals participating in a cooperative hospital network. Proceedings of the Korean Small Business Association Spring Conference 2002:171–186.
11. Kim KE.. 2003. An analysis of customer awareness and satisfaction regarding network clinics. Master’s thesis Kyung Hee University, Graduate School of Business Administration; Seoul, South Korea:
12. Brand Bondam. n.d. Enhancing synergy with 365-day medical care: Hospital branding for patient-centered clinics. Brand Bondam Analysis Retrieved December 8, 2024, Available from: https://bondam.co.kr/analysis/?q=YToyOntzOjQ6InBhZ2UiO2k6NTtzOjEyOiJrZXl3b3JkX3R5cGUiO3M6MzoiYWxsIjt9&bmode=view&idx=16683996&t=board.
13. Park WG.. 2012. May. 25. Transformation of Korean medicine clinics: Securing competitiveness through “scale-up” and “specialization”. Money Today Retrieved December 8, 2024, Available from: https://news.mt.co.kr/mtview.php?no=2012052516308235837.
14. Choi SH.. 2017. March. 27. O Se-hyung, president of the Busan Association of Korean Medicine: “Great achievements in oriental infertility treatment with Busan city”. Busan.com Retrieved December 8, 2024, Available from: https://www.busan.com/view/busan/view.php?code=20170327000303.
15. Cho SM., Kwon S-I., Kim S-J.. 2012;Do Organizational Factors Influence the Outcome of Social Enterprise? Korean Journal of Social Welfare 64(3):29–50.
16. Song YJ., Nam JS.. 2021;A study on factors affecting the business performance of local small businesses. Journal of Regional Studies 29(1):1–32. https://doi.org/10.31324/JRS.2021.03.29.1.1.
17. Cho DY.. 2012;The Study on the Difference of Management Performance in Public Health Care Institution. The Korean Journal of Health Service Management 6(2):133–140. https://doi.org/10.12811/kshsm.2012.6.2.133.
18. Seo SK., Joe KJ., Choi JY.. 2022;The Relationship between publicness and management performance of hospitals: A systematic review. Journal of Korean Economic Studies 40(2):39–65. https://doi.org/10.46665/jkes.2022.6.40.2.39.
19. Kim HM., Lee JH., Park YS., Kim JH., An EJ., Hong BH., Kim DS.. 2022;Characteristics of Korean medicine clinics affecting the form of external decoction preparation: Focused on the 2021 herbal medicine consumption survey. Journal of Society of Preventive Korean Medicine 26(3):17–28. doi.org/10.25153/spkom.2022.26.3.002.
20. Choi JS., Kim MI.. 2014;Latent Classes of Social Welfare Service Experiences and Quality of life among the disabled: Focused on latent class analysis. Korea Academy of Disability and Welfare 26:147–171. 10.22779/kadw.2014..26.147.
21. Lee JS., Shim DN.. 2022;A study on the perception and attitude types and characteristics of transmission line construction using latent class analysis (LCA). Journal of Environmental Policy and Administration 30(1):93–115. doi.org/10.15301/jepa.2022.30.1.93.
22. National Institute for Korean Medicine Development. 2024. Korean Medicine Utilization and Herbal Medicine Consumption Survey, 2023 Ministry of Health and Welfare.
23. Kim S., Kim IM., Chang S., Moon KJ.. 2017;Identification and prediction of patterns of health-promoting behaviors among the elderly. Health and Social Welfare Review 37(2):251–286. doi.org/10.15709/hswr.2017.37.2.251.
24. Eun-Na K., Hong LM.. 2014;An exploratory study of social network type among nursing home residents: Focusing on external relationship resources of nursing facilities. Health and Social Welfare Review 34:133–160.
25. Jedidi K., Ramaswamy V., DeSarbo WS.. 1993;A maximum likelihood method for latent class regression involving a censored dependent variable. Psychometrika 58(3):375–394. 10.1007/BF02294691.
26. Min IS., Choi PS.. 2019. Advanced statistical analysis with STATA Seoul, South Korea: Jipil Media Co., Ltd.
27. Lee KW.. 2003. March. 19. Franchise and Korean medicine clinics (3). Minjok Medicine Newspaper Retrieved December 8, 2024, Available from: https://www.mjmedi.com/news/articleView.html?idxno=1325.

Article information Continued

Fig. 1

Fig. 1

Conditional Probability of Assignment to Categorization Variable by Latent Class Type of Korean Medicine Clinic

Table 1

Variable Classification and Item

Variable Name Item
Typed Variables Region City
Province
Franchise Affiliation Yes
No
Hospital Bed Availability Yes
No
Representative Specialist Yes
No
Use of Share Herbal Dispensary Facility Yes
No
Institutional Characteristics Variables Total Sales (million won)
Operation Period (years)
Number of Korean Medicine Doctors (persons)
Total Number of Staff (persons)
Size of Korean Medicine Clinic (m2)
Non-insurance Ratio (%)
Characteristic Variables of Herbal Medicine Consumption Number of Herbal Medicine Prescriptions (cases)
Number of Non-insurance Herbal Medicine Prescriptions (cases)
Proportion of Disease Treatment in Herbal Medicine Prescriptions (%)
Lowest Price per Herbal Medicine Prescription for Disease Treatment (10,000 won)
Highest Price per Herbal Medicine Prescription for Disease Treatment (10,000 won)
Representative Perception Variables Awareness of Certification System for External Herbal Dispensary Facilities Yes
No
Use of Certified Herbal Dispensary Facilitys Yes
No
Importance of Certification When Selecting a Common Herbal Dispensary Facilities Yes
No
Top Priority for Improvement Expansion of Health Insurance Benefits
Promotion of Traditional Korean Medicine
Other
Top Priority for Health Insurance Coverage of Korean Medicine Treatments Crude Drugs
Herbal Medicine Prescriptions
Other
Top Priority for Expanding and Improving Herbal Medicine Prescriptions Expansion of Health Insurance Coverage
Other

Table 2

General Characteristics of the Target Korean Medicine Clinic (N=1,648)

N or Average % or Standard Deviation
Region City 876 53.16
Province 772 46.84
Franchise Affiliation Yes 67 4.07
No 1,581 95.93
Hospital Bed Availability Yes 240 14.56
No 1,408 85.44
Representative Specialist Yes 548 33.25
No 1,100 66.75
Use of Common Herbal Dispensary Facility Yes 755 45.81
No 893 54.19
Total Sales (million won) 455.53 534.57
Operation Period (years) 13.10 10.31
Number of Korean Medicine Doctors (persons) 1.33 0.78
Total Number of Personnel (persons) 4.91 4.16
Size of Korean Medicine Clinic (m2) 224.17 202.92
Non-insurance Ratio (%) 28.33 19.86

Table 3

Latent Class Analysis Model Fit Comparison

Class 2 Class 3 Class 4 Class 5
AIC 8520.26 8502.02 8499.32 8506.10
BIC 8574.33 8588.54 8602.06 8630.47

Table 4

Conditional Response Probability of Each Type (N=1,648)

Class1
Non-urban
General Korean Medicine
Clinic
(45.1%)		 Class2
Urban
General Korean Medicine
Clinic
(47.8%)		 Class3
Korean Medicine Clinic
Preferring Common Herbal
Dispensary Facility
(7.1%)
N 744 787 117
Region Province 0.965 0.000 0.439
City 0.035 0.999 0.561
Franchise Affiliation Yes 0.000 0.002 0.237
No 0.999 0.998 0.763
Hospital Bed Availability Yes 0.146 0.037 0.418
No 0.854 0.963 0.582
Representative Specialist Yes 0.341 0.332 0.313
No 0.659 0.668 0.687
Use of Common Herbal Yes 0.373 0.407 0.798
Dispensary Facility No 0.627 0.593 0.202

Table 5

Institutional Characteristics by Type of Korean Medicine Clinic (N=1,648)

Class1
Non-Urban General
Korean Medicine
Clinic		 Class2
Urban General Korean
Medicine Clinic		 Class3
Korean Medicine
Clinic Preferring
Common Decoction
Room		 p-value
Total Sales (million won) 473.46±609.36 401.35±431.09 705.88±578.49 <0.001
Operation Period (years) 12.43±9.89 14.68±10.69 6.69±6.88 <0.001
Number of Korean Medicine Doctors (persons) 1.31±0.73 1.26±0.69 1.95±1.27 <0.001
Total Number of Staff (persons) 5.11±4.57 4.11±3.02 9.00±5.34 <0.001
Size of Korean Medicine Clinic (m2) 204.90±168.55 165.86±149.22 330.50±227.69 <0.001
Non-insurance Ratio (%) 26.12±16.37 30.13±22.32 30.27±21.20 <0.001
†

Statistically significant with p<.01, Result of ANOVA

Table 6

Characteristics of Herbal Medicine Consumption by Type of Korean Medicine Clinic (N=1,638)

Class1
Non-Urban General
Korean Medicine
Clinic		 Class2
Urban General Korean
Medicine Clinic		 Class3
Korean Medicine
Clinic Preferring
Common Herbal
Dispensary Facility		 p-value
Number of Herbal Medicine Prescriptions (cases) 762.40±1273.25 606.42±1078.52 1129.03±1326.91 <0.001
Number of Non-insurance Herbal medicine Preparations (cases) 441.24±1397.45 243.57±394.92 848.25±1670.06 <0.001
Proportion of Disease Treatment Among Herbal Medicine Prescriptions (%) 74.21±20.94 74.74±20.37 76.70±23.85 0.480
Lowest Cost per Prescription of Herbal Medicine for Disease Treatment* (10,000 won) 13.33±4.90 15.40±6.25 13.95±5.30 <0.001
Highest Cost per Herbal Medicine Prescriptions for Disease Treatment* (10,000 won) 26.68±11.42 27.88±12.40 26.53±12.36 0.120
*

There are 10 non-respondents. Total responses: n=1,268.

†

Statistically significant with p<.01, Result of ANOVA

Table 7

Representative awareness by type of Korean medicine clinic (N=1648)

Class1
Non-urban
General Korean
Medicine Clinic		 Class2
Urban
General Korean
Medicine Clinic		 Class3
Korean Medicine
Clinic Preferring
Common Herbal
Dispensary Facility		 P-value
Awareness of the Certification System for External Herbal Dispensary Facilities
Yes 583(78.36) 635(80.69) 83(70.94) 0.047
No 161(21.64) 152(19.31) 34(29.06)
Whether Certified Herbal Dispensary
Facilities are Used*
Yes 342(60.75) 331(52.96) 73(90.12) <0.001
No 221(39.25) 294(47.04) 8(9.88)
Importance of Certification When Choosing a Common Herbal Dispensary Facility
Yes 660(88.71) 621(78.91) 105(89.74) <0.001
No 84(11.29) 166(21.09) 12(10.26)
Most importantly
Top Priority for Improvement
Expansion of Health Insurance Benefits 466(62.63) 397(50.44) 77(65.81) <0.001
Promotion of Traditional Korean Medicine 106(14.25) 128(16.26) 13(11.11)
Other 172(23.12) 262(33.29) 27(23.08)
Top Priority for Health Insurance Coverage of Korean Medicine Treatments
Crude Drugs 241(32.39) 225(28.59) 48(41.03) 0.023
Herbal Medicine Prescriptions 269(36.16) 316(40.15) 31(26.50)
Other 234(31.45) 246(31.26) 38(32.48)
Top Priority for Expanding and Improving
Herbal Medicine Prescriptions
Expansion of Health Insurance Coverage 568(76.34) 581(73.82) 85(72.65) 0.444
Other 176(23.66) 206(26.18) 32(27.35)
*

Responses were only collected from those who answered ‘yes’ to ‘Awareness of the certification system for external Herbal Dispensary Facilities ‘. Total responses: n=1,268

†

Statistically significant with p<.01, Result of chi-square test