Effectiveness of Integrative Therapy for Parkinson’s Disease Management

Woo, Yeonju; Hyun, Min Kyung

It should be noted that this paper had several limitations. First, the number of subjects was not sufficient because of data limitations; therefore, we cannot be sure of whether the non-significance of results is due to the absence of a relationship between the groups or to a lack of statistical power. Accordingly, comparative studies with increased duration and number of patients are required to clarify the effects KM on PD. Second, we assessed whether PD and its complications have been wellcontrolled by alternative outcomes-related measures such as the prevalence of hospitalization and annual length of hospitalization after PD diagnosis. Generally, the outcome of PD recovery or management is evaluated based on the UPDRS, SCOPA, or the PDQ-39. However, the NHIS-NSC does not contain this information because it consists of only health insurance claim data. Third, the number of KM monotherapy patients was very small. In the Korean health insurance system, PD is a serious rare disease that is registered and managed by the government. After PD patients are confirmed and registered 90% of the cost of treatment is supported by the government. In addition to receiving standard drug therapies such as levodopa, registered patients can also concurrently use KM such as herbal formulas and acupuncture if they desire. Therefore, further study is necessary to analyze the total national insurance dataset because the NHIS-NSC, which was used in our study, is equivalent to only 2.2% of the population of the South Korea.