Use of Nonprescription and Prescription Drugs and Drug Information Sources among Breastfeeding Women in Japan: A Cross-Sectional Study.

Breastfeeding women may experience various health issues that require medication. This survey aimed to gain insights into the use of nonprescription and prescription drugs by breastfeeding women in Japan. A cross-sectional study involving women with children aged under two years was conducted in Fukuoka, Japan. Nonprescription drugs were used by 26% of participants in the breastfed-only group, 41% in the breastfed more than half the time group, 55% in the formula-fed more than half the time group, and 82% in the formula-fed-only group. We found that when breastfeeding rates decreased, the use of nonprescription drugs increased (p < 0.05, Cochran-Armitage test for trend). There were significant differences in the use of nonprescription cold medicines and oral analgesics between the formula-fed and breastfed groups, but a nonsignificant difference in prescription drugs use between the groups. These results indicated breastfeeding had a significant influence on use of nonprescription drugs, which was not observed with prescription drugs. Breastfeeding women commonly used the Internet to obtain information on both nonprescription and prescription drugs; however, this did not influence medication use.

Present Conditions and Problems of Home Care Education in Pharmaceutical Education: Through the Activities of "the Working Group to Create Home Clinical Cases for Education".

In the pharmaceutical education model core curriculums revision, "basic qualities required as a pharmacist" are clearly shown, and "the method based on learning outcomes" has been adopted. One of the 10 qualities (No. 7) is "Practical ability of the health and medical care in the community". In the large item "F. Pharmaceutical clinical" of the model core curriculums, "participation in the home (visit) medical care and nursing care" is written in "participation in the health, medical care, and welfare of the community", and it is an important problem to offer opportunities of home medical care education at university. In our university, we launched a working group to create "home clinical cases for education" from the educational point of view to pharmacy students to learn home medical care, in collaboration with university faculty members and pharmacists, who are practitioners of home care. Through its working group activities, we would like to organize the present conditions and problems of home care education in pharmaceutical education and to examine the possibility of using "home clinical case studies" in home care education at university.

Self-perceived oral health status and influencing factors of the elderly residents of a peri-urban area of La Paz, Bolivia.

AIM: To assess the self-perceived oral health status of the elderly in Bolivia and explore the relationship between the socio-demographic and subjective factors that influence such perception. DESIGN: A cross sectional study. SETTING: Pampahasi, peri-urban area of La Paz, Bolivia. PARTICIPANTS: A 22.5% (300) sample was selected randomly from the total population (1,336) of 60 years and above. Of the participants, 293 agreed to participate in the survey. METHODS: Information was collected by interviews at home. RESULTS: The mean age was 70 years (SD = 7.7), with more females (57%) than males. Sixty per cent of subjects categorised their oral health as poor. Logistic regression analysis showed that poor self-perceived oral health was associated significantly with not going to school, no/ fair satisfaction with economic status, poor chewing ability, perception of need for dental treatment, and poor self-perceived general health status. CONCLUSIONS: Socio-economic factors seem to contribute to poor oral health among the elderly in Bolivia. Considering that these factors are associated with bad oral health behaviour and few visits to dental clinics, there is a need to design dental education programmes and enhance accessibility to dental clinics for elderly people living in the peri-urban areas of La Paz, Bolivia.