As the role of traditional medicine in community health improvement increases, a comprehensive health care program for infectious diseases management in child-care centers by Korean medicine doctors was developed. The purpose of this study is to evaluate the effects of the program intervention on infection-related medical care utilization among children. The study used a quasi-experimental design with nonequivalent control group, comparing pre- and post-intervention data of the same children. The program implemented interventions in terms of management, education, and medical examination for the teachers, parents, and children in 12-week period. The frequency of utilization, cost, and prescription days of drugs and antibiotics due to infectious diseases prior to the intervention were compared with those during the 3-month intervention, using health insurance claim data. A panel analysis was also conducted to support the findings. A significant reduction (12%) in infection-related visit days of hospitals was observed with the intervention (incident rate ratio = 0.88,P=0.01). And medical cost, drug prescription days, and antibiotics prescription days were decreased, although not statistically significant. A further cost-effectiveness analysis in terms of social perspectives, considering the opportunity costs for guardians to take children to medical institutions, would be needed.
Child Care and Early Education Program Participation of Infants, Toddlers, and Preschoolers
