Background/Objectives: Since April 2006, smoking cessation treatment has been included in public health insurance coverage, although conditionally. The tobacco control program usually takes 12 weeks or so. When it comes to the form of treatment, most medical care facilities adopt nicotine replacement therapy (NRT) at their outpatient ward. The cessation success rates are considered not so high as before. In stead of treating nicotine-addict outpatients individually, our hospital has been offering a stop-smoking program all its own since 1999. This study was designed to examine the results of our efforts in the last six years retrospectively.Subjects/Methods: Enrolled for this study were 232 patients who had participated in our six-month smoking cessation program between 1999 and 2005. A non-smokingsupport team made up of a physician, pharmacist(s), nurses, dietitian(s) and physical therapist(s) takes care of groups of participating patients, each group consisting of 10 or less. The patients undergo behavior therapy throughout the 6-month period and NRT in the first eight weeks. Under the program, nutrition guidance is offered regularly by dietitians for weight control and physical exercises by physical therapists for relief from the stress due to abstinence from smoking. We took a questionnaire survey of all the subjects and worked out the ratios of those persons who had remained abstinent up to one year after they stopped smoking to the total.Results: The rates of abstinence maintained eight weeks, six months and one year after the start of cessation were 78.4%, 70.3% and 64.7%, respectively. Of those who were still abstinent, 78.0% replied that they found it easy to resist the urge to smoke cigarette thanks to the smoking cessation program.Conclusion: Our six-month participatory tobacco control program was found effective as high cessation rates were maintained.
Cessation of smoking ; seconds ; month ; week ; Smoking

Effects of single moxibustion on platelet aggregation and ATP-release in mice have been studied. Male ddY mice (6 weeks old) were used as experimental animals. 15mg and 5mg of moxa were divided into 6 cones and mice were treated by each 3 cones at right and left LV-14. The electronic aggregometer was used for measuring platelet aggregation and ATP-release using whole blood. Platelet aggregation and ATP-release activities were determined by collagen (final concentration; 2μg/ml) and ADP (final concentration; 20μM) as inducers.
No significant changes on platelet and red blood cell numbers were found after the moxibustion with 15mg of moxa. However, white blood cell numbers were decreased at 1hr and increased at 24hr after the moxibustion.
After the moxibustion with 15mg of moxa, platelet aggregation activity induced by collagen showed no change, but the mild shortness of lag time was observed from 1 to 5hr. While, the mild suppressive effect on platelet aggregation induced by collagen was observed at 1 and 5hr after the moxibustion with 5mg of moxa.
After the moxibustion with 15mg of moxa, mild increase in platelet aggregation activity at 24hr and in ATP-release activity from 1 to 5hr was found. After the moxibustion with 5mg of moxa, an apparent increase in ATP-release activity was observed at 1 and 3hr.
These results suggested that the mild changes in platelet functions were closely related with the response of the coagulation and the fibrinolytic activity in mice.

We investigated the prevalence of, and factors in, urinary incontinence among the people of middle to advanced age, using a yes/no questionnaire. The total number of respondents was 4, 020 (1, 520 males and 2, 500 females). Seventy-five percent of them were over 65 years old (median age: 67 years). The prevalence of urinary incontinence was 14% for the males and 30% for the females. The data were analyzed by standard statistical tests, such as χ² tests. The factors closely associated with urinary incontinence were aging, the high urinary frequency in a day, a history of cerebrovascular accidents, difficulty of urination in the males and UTI in the females. Urinary incontinence of the urge type account for 64% of the males and that of the stress type 81% of the females. Fifteen percent of the males and 6% of the females had consulted with physicians or urologists about urinary incontinence. These percentages were lower than those in European countries. However, we suspect that there may be much more latent patients who suffer from urinary incontinence in their daily community life.

Objective: The aim of this study is to explore the factors associated with the burden of home care for doctors. Methods: In July 2013 a survey was mailed to a cross-section of clinics and hospitals in Kobe City. Results: Questionnaires were sent to 1,589 clinics and hospitals and 899 (57%) responded. Of these, data from 807 respondents were available for analysis. The burden of home care was felt to be considerable for 30% and slight for 31% of respondents. Determinants associated with the burden of home care were; 80 years and older doctors (P=0.05), particular medical measures (P=0.036), building links with other medical facility or care staff (P=0.002), and ensuring the sufficient time and staff (P<0.001). Conclusion: The majority of doctors reported a burden associated with home care.

Objective：The aim of this study was to investigate the current status of home care provided by hospitals and clinics in Kobe City. Methods：In July 2013 a survey was mailed to a cross-section of all clinics and hospitals in Kobe City. Results：Questionnaires were sent to 1,589 clinics and hospitals and 899（57％）responded. Regular and urgent home visits by doctors were provided by 50％ and 65％ of respondents, respectively. End-of-life care for dying patients at home and in nursing homes was provided by 31％ and 18％ of respondents, respectively. The average time spent on home visits was 2.3±1.7 days per week. Care for cancer patients, participation in national palliative care lectures, and holding a discussion at the admitting hospital before discharge for home care, were performed by 23％, 7.0％, and 6.9％ of respondents, respectively. Conclusion：The majority of hospitals and clinics in Kobe City provided home care.

Prevalence of age-dependent diseases such as asthma is confounded not only by aging effects but also by cohort and period effects. Age-period-cohort (APC) analysis is commonly performed to isolate the effects of these three factors from two-way tables of prevalence by age and birth cohort. However, APC analysis suffers from technical difficulties such as non-identifiability problems. We isolated the effects of these three factors in a step-by-step manner by analyzing Japan's school health data collected from 1984 to 2004 focusing on asthma prevalence among school children aged 6-17 years consisting of 30 birth cohorts (entering classes). We verified the accuracy of our method showing high agreement of the observed age-, period- and cohort-specific data and the data predicted by our method. The aging effects were found to follow cubic equations whose multinomial coefficients were determined by an optimization technique. The obtained aging effect curves of age-specific asthma prevalence showed that boys reach the peak prevalence at 13 and girls at 14, declining markedly afterward. The cohort effects, defined as the arithmetic asthma prevalence means for ages 6-17 years, showed consistent upward trends for the 30 birth cohorts born in 1968-97 for both sexes. The period effects showed a consistent decline since 1984 but abruptly increased in 1999 and then declined again. We were not able to identify the exact cause of the increase in 1999, therefore, this should be examined in the future studies. Because the cohort effects show no sign of leveling off yet, asthma prevalence will likely increase in the foreseeable future.

Introduction: Recently, doping among athletes has been on the rise, and pharmacists have an important role in both the promotion of anti-doping (AD) and in providing accurate information and effective support. In this study, we examined various fact-finding surveys that targeted physical education university (PEU) students, and we focused on their use of pharmacies/drugstores, their involvement with pharmacists, and knowledge about AD. We also examined the necessary AD-related professional competencies of pharmacists. Method: Questionnaire surveys were prepared, and the responses of 1,249 students were analyzed. Results : From a survey on what students buy at pharmacies/drug stores it showed that medicines for flu common colds sell the most. Most of the students did not receive any drug consultations at pharmacies/drug stores before purchasing, because they preferred to make their own decisions about drug use. Also, many students were wary of doping with supplements. Although the students who participated in international sports competitions and events possessed a wealth of doping-related knowledge and awareness, PEU students lacked them. Discussion : We determined that it was necessary to gather relevant patient information and explore methods so that intentions could be discussed when purchasing medications from pharmacies/drug stores. We also recognized the need for early doping education programs in light of the inadequate AD-related knowledge and awareness among university student-athletes. Therefore, all pharmacists should strive to acquire a wide range of knowledge to support athletes in this effort. Furthermore, we believe that expanding the professional functions of pharmacists would increase the awareness of AD among athletes.