Review of Medication Administration Support for Community-dwelling Older People in Japan / 日本プライマリ・ケア連合学会誌

<p><b>Introduction: </b>To understand the current status of and problems with drug administration support (DAS) for elderly people living in communities, we reviewed the original DAS articles for all healthcare professions.</p><p><b>Methods: </b>We extracted and reviewed original articles published for 15 years from January 2000 in CiNii articles and "Igaku Chuo Zasshi". Key words were as follows: "elderly," "housebound," and "compliance management OR compliance guidance", based on the thesaurus in each database. The extracted articles were reviewed for content.</p><p><b>Result: </b>In all, 34 articles were extracted. The individuals involved in DAS were family members, neighbors, home helpers, nurses, physicians, pharmacists, and devices for compliance support. Care managers were not included as support. The current status of DAS extracted by content analysis was "compliance assistance", "compliance management", and "coordination arrangement". Problems with DAS were "information sharing and inter-professional collaboration", "appropriate prescription plans for abilities and lifestyles of the elderly", and "establishing support for taking medicine".</p><p><b>Conclusion: </b>We found that sharing information and inter-professional collaboration are needed to support drug administration for community-living elderly people in Japan.</p>

Difficulties of pregnancy, delivery, and child raising for immigrant women in Japan and their strategies for overcoming them / 国際保健医療

<B>Objectives</B><br>The study aims to clarify the difficulties of pregnancy, delivery, and child raising for immigrant women in Japan and their strategies for overcoming them.<br><B>Methods</B><br>The semi-structured interviews were conducted with 18 immigrant women who have experience of delivery or child raising in Japan. The participants were asked about their experiences and difficulties faced during pregnancy, delivery, and child raising, and how they overcame them. The data were analyzed in a qualitative and descriptive manner.<br><B>Results</B><br>Seven core categories of difficulties were extracted:«anxiety about child raising»,«problems with relationships with others»,«socio-economic problems»,«anxiety about pregnancy, delivery, and diseases»,«problems caused by illiteracy»,«lack of understanding about Japanese health system»,«choice of the delivery country». Women's«making efforts to manage»is supported by family members and it leads to«use of the Japanese health system». Getting support from friends and neighbors, and the use of an interpreter also leads to this. Some women try to overcome the difficulties by«using a non- Japanese health system»or«doing nothing».<br><B>Conclusions</B><br>When foreigners access health services, not only literacy but also health literacy, such as understanding medical terms or health systems are necessary. Many immigrant women got support from family and friends to overcome the difficulties. However, some women could not get such support and it is necessary for them to make a support network. Foreign women who take negative strategies and use non-Japanese health systems may be in the process of adjusting to Japanese society. Health providers should not deny such strategies, but understand them as a way of decreasing anxiety.