Folk remedies in Korean rheumatoid arthritis patients

Lee, Sang Rae; Shin, Sun Young; Lew, Soo Hyun; Kim, Hyun Joon; Youn, Bang Bu

Abstract

BACKGROUD: A lot of "Folk Remedies" on rheumatoid arthritis treatment prevail in Korea, but they have never been evaluated or investigated systemically. Therefore we studied folk remedies used in rheumatoid arthritis patients.
METHODS
We delivered 12 questionnaires to 106 rheumatoid arthritis out -patients of family medicine, internal medicine, and orthopedics, located in Seoul and Kyungki area. These questionnaires addressed to demographic characteristics, duration of rheumatoid arthritis, current treatments, kind of folk remedies experienced, decision to choose folk remedies and its subjective effects, and volition to try new folk remedies.
RESULTS
There were up to 27 kinds of folk remedies used by 77 people (72.8% of total). Lower education level was proved to be correlated with folk remedies experience. Most patients began their remedies introduced by relatives or close friends (83.1%) . Many Patients on folk remedies were skeptical about its effect, but they were still willing to try new folk medicine (80.6%). Many rheumatoid arthritis patients experienced folk remedies and were skeptical about its effects, but they were still willing to try new folk medicine. Therefore, education on folk remedies is needed.