As prescriptions for growth hormone injections have sharply increased, so have the number of reports on adverse events associated with growth hormone injections.

Against this backdrop, a physician-turned-lawmaker recently called for attention to the risk of growth hormone abuse and misuse.

Rep. Shin Hyun-young of the main opposition Democratic Party of Korea (DPK) said Monday that the number of prescriptions for growth hormone injections increased 3.45 times from 55,075 in 2018 to 191,000 in 2022, based on her analysis of data on pediatric growth drug prescriptions for the past five years submitted by the Health Insurance Review and Assessment Service (HIRA) and the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety (MDFS).

The number of adverse events related to growth hormone injections reported to the MFDS also grew by about five times, from 320 to 1,604 during the period.

Over the past five years, tertiary general hospitals made the largest number of pediatric growth medicines, including growth hormone injections, by senior general hospitals, while neighborhood clinics marked the steepest rise in such prescriptions.

Tertiary general hospitals made 344,193 pediatric growth drugs, accounting for 49.5 percent of the total 695,503 prescriptions, followed by general hospitals at 35.5 percent (246,624) and hospitals at 10.2 percent (71,089).

Prescriptions at neighborhood clinics increased the most, from 1,641 in 2018 to 10,871 in 2022, recording a 6.62-fold increase.

The age group most prescribed with growth hormone injections over the past five years was 10-14-year-olds, with 388,331 prescriptions, accounting for 55.1 percent of all prescriptions (695,503), followed by 5-9-year-olds with 278,355, or 40.0 percent.

In particular, 10-14-year-olds, the age group with the highest number of prescriptions, saw the largest increase in prescriptions, from 25,250 in 2018 to 114,217 in 2022, a 4.52-fold increase.

By area, Seoul marked the highest number of prescriptions for growth hormone injections, accounting for 27.7 percent (192,497) of the total over the past five years, followed by Gyeonggi Province with 18.7 percent (130,234) and Daegu with 13.8 percent (96,127).

South Jeolla Province and Ulsan were the regions where the number of prescriptions increased rapidly in 2022 compared to 2018, with an 18.56-fold and an 8.92-fold increase.

As the number of prescriptions for growth hormone injections increased, the number of adverse event reports related to them increased by about 5.01 times in 2022 compared to 2018. Adverse event reports increased from 320 in 2018 to 437 in 2019, 663 in 2020, 1,192 in 2021, and 1,604 in 2022.

The most frequent adverse events included systemic disorders and site reactions, including injection site pain, injection site bleeding, and injection site bruising; various neurological disorders, including headache and dizziness; gastrointestinal disorders, including vomiting, nausea, and epigastric pain; and skin and subcutaneous tissue disorders, including urticarial and pruritic rash.

"With the expansion of the reimbursement criteria for growth hormone injections in 2019, prescriptions are increasing significantly in hospitals and clinics," Rep. Shin said. "It is serious that some growth clinics are abusing it indiscriminately due to a misguided perception of it as a means of increasing height."

As growing children and adolescents are prescribed drugs, safe prescription management is needed to target indications. The government must break the vicious cycle of medical abuse due to excessive lookism by conducting investigations and preparing countermeasures, Rep. Shin added.