A Survey of Patients' Understanding of Drowsiness as Side Effect of 2nd Generation Antihistamines / 日本農村医学会雑誌

Purpose: Many types of antihistamines used for the treatment of allergic rhinitis induce drowsiness as a side effect. Whether or not patients taking the internal drugs know of this untoward effect is a matter of importance. Recently we conducted a questionnaire survey to know how many patients are aware of this.Method: The subjects were 257 patients who visited our hospital for treatment of alergic rhinitis and took the prescription from February through March this year. The patients filled in a questionnaire given at the window of the dispensary. All the participants in this survey gave their informed consent.Results: Effective replies (90.3%) were obtained from 232 patients (mean age: 53.5±17.5; sex: 85 males and 147 females). Of those respondents, 45 individuals (19.9%) said they did not know that the antihistamines produce drowsiness. Furthermore, the survey found that 24 out of the 45 individuals were actually taking the type of antihistamine that caused drowsiness and 21 individuals were not given any explanation of the side effect by their doctors. The patients said that if they knew of the side effect they would not have taken the medicine. Moreover, it was found that 10 out of the 21 patients drove their cars while they felt drowsy.Conclusions: The survey revealed the hard fact that the drowsiness as side reaction the patients might have after taking antihistamines was made light of. The findings brought home to us the importance of giving clear directions to the patients about the medicine and the precaution against the side effects.

The Outcome of Our Smoking Cessation Interventions Project in the Past 6 Years: A Study of 1-Year Abstinence Rates / 日本農村医学会雑誌

Background/Objectives: Since April 2006, smoking cessation treatment has been included in public health insurance coverage, although conditionally. The tobacco control program usually takes 12 weeks or so. When it comes to the form of treatment, most medical care facilities adopt nicotine replacement therapy (NRT) at their outpatient ward. The cessation success rates are considered not so high as before. In stead of treating nicotine-addict outpatients individually, our hospital has been offering a stop-smoking program all its own since 1999. This study was designed to examine the results of our efforts in the last six years retrospectively.Subjects/Methods: Enrolled for this study were 232 patients who had participated in our six-month smoking cessation program between 1999 and 2005. A non-smokingsupport team made up of a physician, pharmacist(s), nurses, dietitian(s) and physical therapist(s) takes care of groups of participating patients, each group consisting of 10 or less. The patients undergo behavior therapy throughout the 6-month period and NRT in the first eight weeks. Under the program, nutrition guidance is offered regularly by dietitians for weight control and physical exercises by physical therapists for relief from the stress due to abstinence from smoking. We took a questionnaire survey of all the subjects and worked out the ratios of those persons who had remained abstinent up to one year after they stopped smoking to the total.Results: The rates of abstinence maintained eight weeks, six months and one year after the start of cessation were 78.4%, 70.3% and 64.7%, respectively. Of those who were still abstinent, 78.0% replied that they found it easy to resist the urge to smoke cigarette thanks to the smoking cessation program.Conclusion: Our six-month participatory tobacco control program was found effective as high cessation rates were maintained.

2005 Questionnaire Survey on Non-Smoking at Public Places, Schools, Nursery Schools and Post Offices in Mizunami (Comparison with 2004 Survey) / 日本農村医学会雑誌

This paper reports the findings of a follow-up survey on non-smoking carried out in 2005. The previous survey was conducted in 2004 by distributing questionnaires to public facilities, schools, nursery schools and post offices in Mizunami. Method:The questionnaires consisted of the same questions as the previous ones and were sent to the same 64 facilities. Results:The questionnaires were recovered from 59 facilities(92.2%). Compared with the results of the previous survey, the number of public facilities, schools, offices and resting rooms where smoking is totally prohibited increased. In post offices, smoking corners disappeared. Progress was also made remarkably in division of public space and a workplace into smoking and nonsmoking areas. The smoking ratio of employees in these facilities surveyed decreased from 20% to 17%. Conclusion:Our survey confirmed that nonsmoking has steadily won public acceptance in a matter of one year.