Questionnaire Survey of Implementation Status of “Education for Medicines” at High Schools in Gifu

Abstract

Education for medications was integrated into the Japanese junior high school health and physical education (HPE) guidelines in 2012, in tandem with revisions to the Course of Study. To assess knowledge and awareness of the proper use of medications among students who completed courses pertaining to them, a questionnaire survey was administered at 38 high schools in Gifu Prefecture. The questionnaire＇s recovery and effective response rates were both 99.7％ (1,403/1,407 and 1,399/1,403, respectively). Further, 86.6％ of respondents sought advice from their parents or grandparents when using medicines, with 85.4％ responding "No" to a question on whether they had ever purchased medicine based on their own self-judgment. A total of 21.4％ of respondents had received medicine from friends, and 21.3％ had given medicine away. Responding to a question on whether they were aware of the class content regarding medicines, 31.0％ of the students answered "Yes," 48.0％ "I don＇t know," and 19.5％ "No." Many of these students who were aware of the class content regarding medicines, however, were found to have never received medicine from nor given it to friends, suggesting the importance of medication-related lessons. The results of this survey clarified the current state of knowledge and awareness regarding the correct use of medicines among students who have taken the junior high school HPE classes on medicines introduced in 2012. In future, further development of both the classes and the instructions are required, to accomplish the purpose given in the Course of Study.

Factors Influencing Medicine Use Behavior in Adolescents in Japan Using a Bayesian Network Analysis

“…Our methodology is robust (random extraction of surveyed schools from all regions in Japan, a short survey period in order to minimize bias, etc.). The questionnaire we used is reliable and valid, as it was modified from a prior questionnaire used for targeting 5,612 elementary, junior high, and high school students nationwide, as well as 1,399 high school students within the Gifu prefecture (Teramachi et al, 2012, 2016). The results of Table 1, representing descriptive statistics of each question, were quite similar to the results of our previous survey (Teramachi et al, 2012, 2016).…”

“…The questionnaire we used is reliable and valid, as it was modified from a prior questionnaire used for targeting 5,612 elementary, junior high, and high school students nationwide, as well as 1,399 high school students within the Gifu prefecture (Teramachi et al, 2012, 2016). The results of Table 1, representing descriptive statistics of each question, were quite similar to the results of our previous survey (Teramachi et al, 2012, 2016). This implies that the questionnaire which we used has reliability and validity, and that it may be possible to generalize the results of this study and previous our studies to some extent.…”

“…The contents of the questionnaire were examined by school teacher to determine whether students could understand them or not. Additionally, this questionnaire had been used in our previous studies (Teramachi et al, 2012, 2016). The following explanation was stated at the beginning of the questionnaire: ‘Please tell me what you think about medicine.…”

“…From November 2014 to January 2015, after the commencement of the aforementioned medicine education, Teramachi et al (2012) surveyed the implementation status of this provision throughout Japan, reporting that nearly all junior high schools offered medicine education classes. However, when Teramachi et al (2016) surveyed students in their 1st year of high school within the Gifu prefecture, only 31% remembered going through the curriculum. About 70% responded that they either never took a medicine education class or did not remember doing so.…”

The impact of a medical drama featuring a hospital pharmacist on the perception of pharmacists among high school students and guardians: A quasi-experimental study

“…It has been reported, however, that high school students rarely considered pharmacists as a consulting partner when using medicines. 11 This would indicate that they had poor awareness of the roles of pharmacists. It is predicted that high school students have generally not had much opportunity to learn about the duties of pharmacists in depth, and it is unclear whether Japanese high school students are aware of the changes in the role of pharmacists in recent years.…”