Research Trend about Complementary and Alternative Therapy in Korea using Text Network Analysis

Purpose: This study was aimed to identify research trends related to complementary and alternative therapy (CAT) in Korea. Methods: Data were collected from 2000 to 2018 articles in Korean database (KISS, RISS and DBPIA). 295 semantic morphemes were extracted from 123 articles by network analysis program. Co-occurrence matrixes of the morphemes were generated by weighting Jaccard-coefficient and then we did network analysis and visualization. Results: Common morphemes with high centralities were ‘Complementary and alternative medicine (CAM)’, ‘CAT’, ‘Aged’, ‘Diet therapy’, ‘Herbal medicine’, ‘Acupuncture’, and ‘Oriental medicine’. Since 2000, studies on complementary and alternative therapies have been actively involved in biological and manipulative therapies, and it has been found that the main target of CAT is the elderly. Conclusion: Despite much attention of complementary alternative therapies, the scientific basis is insufficient. Through this study, we could find research trends in complementary alternative therapies and set the direction of future research. It is necessary to expand research on complementary replacement therapy for various diseases and age groups.