Status of Responses to Foreign Language Inquiries When Selling OTC Drug / 医薬品情報学

ABSTRACT

Objective: Along with the increase in the number of foreign visitors to Japan, the number of inquiries in foreign languages at the time of OTC drug sales has increased.　To clarify the current status of responses to foreign language inquiries when selling OTC drug, we surveyed the frequency of foreign language response, languages used, trouble experienced, and preparation useful in responding to foreign language inquiries when selling OTC drug.Methods: Our survey was conducted with 694 registered salesclerks of drugs at an external training seminar in Tokyo, Japan.Results: Of the 649 respondents, 337 (51.9%) had experience in responding to inquiries in a foreign language when selling OTC drug.　The languages used were as follows ”English,” 86.4%; ”Chinese,” 70.0%; ”Korean,” 25.8%.　Of the respondents who had experience in responding to inquiries in a foreign language when selling OTC drug, 107 (31.8%) responded ”I experienced trouble because I could not understand what was being said,” and 228 (67.7%) responded ”I could not respond and experienced trouble.”　When asked about preparation/tools useful for selling OTC drug, 434 (66.9%) responded ”multilingual written correspondence table,” 359 (55.3%) responded ”smartphone or tablet‐based correspondence multilingual table,” 299 (46.1%) responded ”marks and illustrations,” and 253 (39.0%) responded ”I would like to be taught how to respond in a foreign language (simple conversation).”Conclusions: Our results revealed that when selling OTC drug, response to inquiries in a foreign language occurred frequently and trouble was experienced in listening comprehension and speaking a foreign language.　Therefore, urgent countermeasures such as preparing a multilingual correspondence table of symptoms, usage, and dosage, and lectures on methods of responding through simple foreign language conversations are necessary.　In addition, efforts such as creation of multilingual drug package inserts by pharmaceutical companies were considered to be an effective measure.