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.

Evaluation of rapid drug safety communication materials for patients in Japan.

Since 2011, pharmaceutical companies in Japan have been required to issue two types of documents regarding severe adverse drug reactions reported post-marketing, namely the Rapid Safety Communication Materials for Patients and the Related Materials. However, the adequacy of these documents has not yet been systematically assessed. The aim of this study was to evaluate the adequacy of these two types of materials. The Rapid Safety Communications for Patients were obtained from the Pharmaceuticals and Medical Devices Agency (PMDA) website. The Related Materials were obtained from pharmaceutical companies or the PMDA website. Three assessors independently scored the Rapid Safety Communication for Patients and the Related Materials using the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Clear Communication Index (CCI). In addition, the contents and descriptions of the materials were analyzed. In total, 13 materials for seven drugs were assessed. Almost all materials contained the "main message" and "call to action". However, the average CCI scores for the Rapid Safety Communication for Patients and Related Materials for Patients were 68.8 and 74.3 (out of 100), respectively. Further, none of the evaluated materials were scored above the CCI threshold score (i.e., ≥ 90%). Descriptions regarding "language", "state of science", and "risk" were not adequate. In particular, the terminology used in materials seemed difficult for patients to understand. In conclusion, the Japanese Rapid Communication Materials for Patients require improvement. Furthermore, a system for evaluating these materials prior to publication should be established.

Comprehensive evaluation of columns in Chinese Pediatric Emergency Medicine / 中国小儿急救医学

Objective:This paper makes a comprehensive evaluation on the columns of Chinese Pediatric Emergency Medicine from communication effect and citation effect, and analyzes the advantages and disadvantages of each column setting, so as to provide evidence-based basis for journal soliciting contributions, and guide column selection planning.Methods:The communication index (website browsing frequency, website download frequency, Wanfang download frequency) and citation index (citation frequency, zero citation rate, high citation rate, high citation rate ratio) of columns in Chinese Pediatric Emergency Medicine from 2016 to 2018 were counted, and whether there were statistical differences among the evaluation indexes of columns was analyzed.Results:In terms of communication index: among the top 20 column communication indicators, comments and guidance columns account for a very high proportion; The communication index of comment column and guidance column was significantly higher than that of other columns, and the differences were statistically significant; There was no significant difference between Article column and Clinical application research column.In terms of citation index: the citation frequency and high citation rate of the Article column are the highest, while the zero citation rate is the lowest, and there was no significant difference among the four columns of Expert forum, Clinical application research, Review and Guideline·consensus·interpretation; The high citation rate ratio of the Guideline·consensus·interpretation column is the highest, followed by the Article column, and the two columns are significantly higher than the Expert forum column; Among the top 20 papers with the highest citation frequency, the column of treatise accounts for 65%.Conclusion:Expert forum column and Guidelin·consensus·interpretation column are the key to influence the communication effect of journals.Article column and Guidelin·consensus·interpretation column are the key to influence the citation effect of journals.The absolute value of evaluation index can not scientifically evaluate the academic quality of journals.

Applying Lessons Learned from CDC's Health Literacy Initiatives.

This report describes health literacy initiatives at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the lessons learned from more than 20 years of commitment to health literacy. Efforts described include CDC's training and tools, the Science Ambassador Fellowship program, and an action plan and report card. The report concludes with recommendations on how to meet the needs of communities and systems.

Understanding the Function Constitution and Influence Factors on Communication for the WeChat Official Account of Top Tertiary Hospitals in China: Cross-Sectional Study.

BACKGROUND: Widespread adoption and continued developments in mobile health care technologies have led to the improved accessibility and quality of medical services. In China, WeChat, an instant messaging and social networking app released by the company Tencent, has developed a specific type of user account called WeChat official account (WOA), which is now widely adopted by hospitals in China. It enables health care providers to connect with local citizens, allowing them to, among other actions, send regular updates through mass circulation. However, with the diversity in function provided by WOA, little is known about its major constitution as well as the influence factors on the WeChat communication index (WCI). The WCI has been widely used in social media impact ranking with various types of WeChat content to fully reflect the dissemination and coverage of tweets as well as the maturity and impact of WOA. OBJECTIVE: There are two typical WOAs available to users, namely, WeChat subscription account (WSSA) and WeChat service account (WSVA). The biggest difference between them is the frequency of messages transmitted. This study aimed to explore the function constitution of WSVA adopted by top tertiary hospitals in China and the major contributors of the WCI score. METHODS: A total of 681 top tertiary hospitals were selected from the Hospital Quality Monitoring System; the WOA of every top tertiary hospital was retrieved in the WeChat app. We divided core functional items of WSVAs using categorical principal component analysis. To elicit the factors that influenced the use of WSVA, quantile regression was employed to analyze the WCI score. RESULTS: From the 668 WOAs identified, adoption of WSVAs (543/668, 81.3%) was more than that of WSSAs (125/668, 18.7%). Functional items of WSVAs were categorized into four clusters: (1) hospital introduction, (2) medical services, (3) visiting assistants, and (4) others. With regard to the influence factors on the WCI, the impact of the activity index of WSVA and the total visiting number of outpatients and emergencies on WCI were statistically significant and positive in all quantiles. However, the year of certification, the type of hospital, the year of public hospital reform, and the number of beds merely affected the WCI at some quantiles. CONCLUSIONS: Our findings are considered helpful to tertiary hospitals in developing in-depth functional items that improve patient experience. The tertiary hospitals should take full advantage of times of posting and provide high-quality tweets to meet the various needs of patients.

[Risk/Benefit Communication: International Developments and Prospects for the Future].

　While expectations for the benefits of pharmaceuticals are high, the occurrence of health damage from adverse drug reactions remains a problem. One of the reasons for this seems to be insufficient risk communication among stakeholders. Healthcare professionals (HCPs), relevant agencies, and pharmaceutical companies have responsibilities to communicate useful information on the risks/benefits of the pharmaceuticals they provide in addition to basic policies and services. Four years have passed since the risk management plan system was introduced in Japan. Although relevant materials for patients and HCPs are offered, it is still difficult to determine whether they are being utilized effectively. The provision of drug information to patients is necessary to allow them to take medicine safely, while maximizing the benefits and minimizing the risks associated with pharmacotherapy. By incorporating survey results on patients' level of understanding of drug risks/benefits, a system to provide information emphasizing the perspectives of patients has been promoted in Europe and North America. In the study of safety issues on a scientific basis, risk communication will become an increasingly important subject. This is a field to which pharmacologists and pharmacists can contribute during this symposium. This paper introduces research activities on risk communication that have been carried out in Japan as well as internationally.