Development and Evaluation of a Communication Index for the Labelling of Foods with Function Claims / 医薬品情報学

Objective: Health information, including the labelling, must be presented in a manner that is easily understandable to consumers. In recent years, the European Union and the United States have introduced standards for providing health information in a way that is easy for consumers to understand. The Clear Communication Index (CCI) published by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is a useful tool for this purpose. Unfortunately, there is no such tool in Japan. Therefore, focusing on the package labelling of foods with functional claims (FFCs) sold in Japan, we constructed a Functional Clear Communication Index (F-CCI) and evaluated the FFCs.Methods: The F-CCI was developed by six people, including university staff with pharmacist qualifications and public health experts, by referring to the CDC CCI. The evaluation of FFCs using the F-CCI was performed using the Delphi method, which is one of the formal consensus-building methods in the field of health and medical information. The evaluation was conducted by three qualified pharmacists on five FFC products, and the degree of internal agreement among the evaluators was calculated using Fleiss’ κ.Results: The F-CCI consisted of 18 items that assessed the FFC characteristics. After assessing the labelling of FFCs using the F-CCI, the scores of all the materials ranged between 70 and 80% on the F-CCI, and none achieved 90%, which was considered the acceptable standard (overall κ value_ 0.865). Moreover, it was clear that the ‘readability’ and ‘understandability’ of the labelling were inadequate.Conclusion: The F-CCI developed in this study for the objective evaluation of the labelling of FFC products will act as a tool that will subsequently lead to the proper understanding and use of FFCs by consumers. Further efforts are needed to build and disseminate such tools and user-friendly ways of providing relevant information.

Actual Use of Internet by Patients with Diabetes to Find Drug Information / 医薬品情報学

Objectives: It is important for patients to make correct use of drug information (DI) to promote the proper use of medicines. Many patients use the Internet to find DI, but awareness about the websites of public institutions that provide DI is low. This study aimed to identify the actual use of the Internet for DI and associated problems to inform development of a comprehensive DI website for patients.Method: Patients with diabetes were set as a model case for patients who take medicines and need DI. A questionnaire survey was conducted among patients with diabetes who visited community pharmacies in Kagoshima City from March 2019 to October 2019. The survey covered Internet use, DI needs, methods of sourcing DI, and problems obtaining DI via the Internet.Results: There were 349 valid respondents (median age 64 years), of which 52.1% used the Internet at least once a week. Around half of the Internet users searched for DI on the Internet. More than half of these respondents chose a DI acquisition site because it “appeared at the top of search results” and was “easy to understand.” However, around half of these respondents felt that “there is too much information on the internet and I don’t know what is correct.”Conclusion: This study suggests that older patients with a long history of diabetes use the Internet to obtain DI. However, patients face various problems accessing DI via the Internet. It may be necessary to construct a comprehensive website that is easy to use and enhance public health literacy to support the proper use of medicines by patients.

Actual Condition Survey of Risk and Benefit Communication for Consumers and Patients on Pharmaceuticals / 医薬品情報学

Objective:It is necessary to obtain appropriate drug information (DI)so that appropriate medical care is provided for the consumers,patients. Thorough studies have not been done on institutions that offer DI for patients in Japan and the state of its dissemination. The purpose of this study is to find levels of recognition of the institutions providing medical information and the actual state of its usage.Method:In order to find the levels of recognition of the institutions that provide DI to general consumers and the state of usage of the information provided by them,we conducted questionnaire surveys using online panels. We also conducted a study to find subjective comprehension on DI by the panels. The surveys were conducted twice using the same questionnaire in order to robust the outcomes of the study.Results:We received 1,095 valid responses from the first survey and 1,086 from the second survey respectively. No significant differences were found between the two surveys. Although the levels of recognition vary for the four representative public institutions providing DI,DI provided by these institutions has been barely utilized by the respondents. As the sources of DI that have been used most,almost the same numbers of respondents replied that they used Internet search engines to access them in addition to medical doctors and pharmacists. Regarding the levels of comprehension for the provided DI,the respondents tended to have shown high levels of understanding on maintaining medication compliance,but low on safety information. There was a positive correlation between age and the understanding of the DI.Conclusion: The study implies that the environment to provide DI for patients still needs to be improved, and the respondents didnʼt understand DI enoughly. Therefore,it is necessary to study further for the creation and communication of truly user-friendly DI.