Last year, 84% of all people prescribed gastrointestinal drugs...Respiratory system prescriptions are higher than digestive system patients
Oct 14, 2025
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This is the result of analyzing the prescription status of medicines for digestive organs (hereinafter referred to as gastrointestinal drugs) received from the National Health Insurance Corporation by Rep. Baek Jong-heon (People's Power), a member of the National Health and Welfare Committee of the National Assembly.
Drug costs were spent 2.159 trillion won last year, accounting for 7.3% of the total drug costs. This is an increase of 33.3% compared to 2019. The average prescription per person per year was 165, an increase of 17.9% over the same period.
Among the total population, 19.9% of patients were prescribed more than 200 gastrointestinal drugs annually, and their average prescription amounted to about 650 tablets (dose for about 7 months).
In particular, the proportion of gastrointestinal drugs prescribed by respiratory patients was higher than that of gastrointestinal patients. As of last year, 82.5% (27.46 million) of 33.29 million respiratory patients were prescribed gastrointestinal drugs, and 78.7% (12.41 million) of 15.77 million gastrointestinal patients were prescribed gastrointestinal drugs.
In addition, the ratio of gastrointestinal drugs prescribed by all outpatients was 31.4% at higher general hospitals and 45.5% at general hospitals, while 56.6% at the hospital level and 52.9% at the clinic level. Among them, the prescription rate of gastrointestinal drugs in patients with respiratory diseases was 46.3% and 60.0% at the hospital and clinic level, respectively, higher than that of advanced general hospitals and general hospitals.
Clinic Baek said "In the course of treating cold and respiratory diseases, gastrointestinal side effects can occur, so the necessary prescription certainly exists."It is also true that there are not a few conventional and automatic concomitant prescriptions," he said. Then "Unnecessary companion prescriptions should be reduced, and only patients who need them should be used at an appropriate dose and period.""More than excessive regulation, various improvement measures are required to ensure that drug prescriptions are made only when absolutely necessary in the future."," he added.
Reporter Kim So-hyung compact@sportschosun.com
This article was translated by Naver AI translator.
