The educational intervention could improve knowledge about rational drug use in the junior high school. Improving knowledge about rational drug use at an early age may be a good way to increase the population's awareness of health, medicines and self-medication. To educate the rational drug use, it is desirable that the school pharmacists participate in this educational program in the junior high school. So we conducted an educational lecture by school pharmacists to promote rational drug use and self-medication in junior high school students. The study compared participant responses before and after a lecture. After theˆrst questionnaire, we lectured the mentioned above to them. Afterward, second questionnaire was conducted. In the second questionnaire, more than 95％ of the students understood the contents of the lecture to some extent. After a lecture, students who answered that`I don't have conˆdence that I can buy medicines rightly by myself' decreased from 42.7％ to 11.7％. And students who answered that`I don't have conˆdence that I can use medicines rightly by myself' decreased from 25.2％ to 12.6％. It was possible to achieve a favorable modiˆcation of attitudes to rational use of medicines in junior high school students. Continuous interventions might allow better eŠects and could help toˆll the gap in health education of the general population.

No abstract

In 2013, the Ministry of Health, Labour, and Welfare issued a notiˆcation regarding drugs that in‰uence driving. Afterward, a questionnaire survey of these drugs was conducted involving health insurance pharmacies in Tokyo and Shiga Prefectures. As a result, 503 (Tokyo) and 116 (Shiga) pharmacies provided completed questionnaires. The notiˆ-cation was su‹ciently and slightly recognized by 20％ and 44％ of the surveyed pharmacies, respectively, and drugs with a driving-related warning were recognized by 31％ of the pharmacies. In addition, 23％ of the pharmacies reported that they always asked patients whether they drive. The in‰uence on driving of antianxiety drugs, hypnotics, antiepileptics, and smoking-cessation drugs was always explained to patients by 74％, 72％, 64％, and 40％ of the pharmacies, respectively. Concerning responses to the prescription of drugs in‰uencing driving, the proportion of surveyed pharmacies in Tokyo and Shiga Prefectures that directed patients not to drive was 71％ and 53％, respectively, and that directed patients to stop driving on developing any symptom was 32％ and 49％. Tokyo and Shiga Prefectures showed a signiˆcant diŠerence in the reason for not prohibiting driving; the proportion of pharmacies that regarded strict medication adherence as of major importance to treat patients' primary diseases was 22％ and 43％, respectively. This diŠerence might have been attributable to a high percentage of patients (80％) driving to pharmacies in Shiga Prefecture. To facilitate the prescription of drugs in‰uencing driving, it is recommended to design drug-speciˆc pharmaceutical education manuals that also give consideration to patients' QOL.

No abstract