ABSTRACT
The number of patients with osteoporosis is an estimated 12,800,000 in Japan. Osteoporosis represents a risk factor for becoming bedridden, and also for increased mortality. It would thus be important to take measures to prevent non-examination and treatment interruption as their rate is high. We recruited participants at a health-supporting event for local residents at our pharmacy on April 14, 2019 and obtained consent from 40 individuals to participate in this study. At this event held by a pharmacy, we conducted bone density measurement and osteoporosis-related preventive education by pharmacists, considering the influence the event had on health-related awareness and behavior in the local residents. Knowledge of osteoporosis was higher after than before the events. Participant health and lifestyle awareness was not observed between before the event and one month after the event. However, one month after the event, several changes could be observed in the behavior of 79.4% (27/34) of the participants. Based on these results, bone density measurement and osteoporosis-related preventive education by pharmacists are suggested to increase osteoporosis-related knowledge among local residents and to promote behavior change related to healthcare and osteoporosis.
ABSTRACT
The conventional crushing method for administration of drugs to patients with feeding tubes has been commonly used at the Hyogo College of Medicine College Hospital. Compared with this conventional method, the simple suspension method can reduce drug degradation due to light and moisture absorption as well as avoid drug loss and contamination. We conducted a workshop to introduce this method to pharmacists. We asked the participants to fill a questionnaire-based survey both before and after the workshop to determine the effects of the workshop on the change in the degree of awareness among participants about these methods. The awareness of participants about the simple suspension method was approximately 80% before the workshop. Approximately 60% of participants answered that they had questions about simple suspension method from individuals from other occupations, suggesting a high awareness of this method. After the workshop, approximately 98% of participants answered that they were “satisfied” or “slightly satisfied,” suggesting that they were in favor of introducing the suspension method. The results of text mining indicated a requirement for participants to consider incompatibilities and to educate the nursing department. Participants who actively considered the proposal of simple suspension method had an altered perception toward the introduction and utilization of this method. Therefore, this survey suggested that workshops could alter the perception and behavior of pharmacists about the methods of drug administration via feeding tube.
ABSTRACT
Post-polio syndrome (PPS) is the term used to describe the symptoms that may develop many years after acute paralytic poliomyelitis( APP). In the case of PPS, the symptoms and signs include progressive muscle wasting and weakness, limb pain, and/or fatigue, occurring one or more decades after maximal recovery from APP. An overuse of enlarged motor units is suspected to cause the deterioration of some nerve terminals or the loss of the motor units themselves. This could in turn induce PPS symptoms such as new muscle weakness and atrophy. Electromyography (EMG) is often a strong tool to diagnose and evaluate PPS. Some studies have shown that mild to moderate intensity muscular strengthening has a positive effect in patients affected by PPS. Rehabilitation for PPS patients should utilize a multiprofessional and multidisciplinary approach. PPS patients should be advised to avoid both inactivity and overuse of the affected muscles. Finally, patient evaluation is often required to access the need of orthoses and assistive devices.
ABSTRACT
<b>Objective: </b>We analyzed articles in the Japanese Journal of Drug Informatics with the goal of identifying recent research trends in drug informatics.<br><b>Method: </b>The appearance frequencies of keywords in the Japanese Journal of Drug Informatics (2001: vol. 3 (1) to 2009: vol. 11 (4)) and Japanese Journal of Pharmaceutical Health Care and Sciences (2009: vol. 35 (1) to (6)), and words in abstracts in Japanese Journal of Drug Informatics (2009: vol. 11 (1) to 2010: vol. 12 (4)) were analyzed. <br><b>Results: </b>To investigate keywords in the Japanese Journal of Drug Informatics, appearance frequencies of information, drug, drugs and pharmacist in 2001: vol. 3 (1) to 2003: vol. 5 (4), those of information, drug, drugs, medical, medication and questionnaire in 2004: vol. 6 (1) to 2006: vol. 8 (4), and those of information, drug, questionnaire, survey, pharmacist, adverse and generic in 2007: vol. 9 (1) to 2009: vol. 11 (4) were higher than those of other keywords. In the Japanese Journal of Pharmaceutical Health Care and Sciences, appearance frequencies of drug, pharmacy, care, patient, pharmaceutical, cancer, education, training, analysis and drugs were higher than those of other keywords. Information, drug(s), patients, pharmacists, hospital, use, questionnaire, medical, adverse, survey, agents, generic and pharmaceutical were high frequency words used in abstracts published in the Japanese Journal of Drug Informatics. These words in abstracts indicate a Zipf’s law-like rank distribution. Co-occurrence network graphs using abstracts showed that the first cluster consisted of medical, drug, adverse, drugs, pharmaceutical, hospital, doctors, contents and drug around information and pharmacists as hubs, and the second cluster consisted of 3 words (agents, woman and pregnant). Furthermore, co-occurrence network graphs indicated that care, medical, pharmaceutical, information, adverse, pharmacists, hospital, doctors, questionnaire, woman, pregnant, package and side were matters of important arguments and/or phenomena.<br><b>Conclusion: </b>These data suggest that the scope of themes in articles published in the Japanese Journal of Drug Informatics is establishing definitive categories. The recent themes and contents of the Japanese Journal of Drug Informatics were closely and mutually related.
ABSTRACT
<b>Purpose</b>: With the aim of improving the efficiency of smoking cessation treatment, we analyzed and classified various factors to identify the relationships between the background of patients and effects of treatment, and examine their characteristics.<br><b>Methods</b>: We conducted a questionnaire survey to collect information on the situation of patients, and obtained their treatment data from medical records. Decision tree analysis, a data mining method, was employed to examine these data.<br><b>Results</b>: According to the results of the survey, the smoking cessation rate was 80.4%. The rate was associated with CO concentrations in the breath at the initial examination, nicotine content in cigarettes smoked by patients, and the daily and total number of cigarettes smoked. The smoking cessation rate among patients under emotional stress was 76.2%; the rate was higher when patients were able to reduce their mental stress levels.<br><b>Conclusion</b>: We identified characteristic relationships between the background of patients and the effects of treatment, and they proved to be useful for the improvement of the smoking cessation rate.