A workshop entitled "Health Literacy Primer: Enhancing Patients' Skills to Promote Their Good Health" was held during the 30th Family Medicine Summer Seminar for medical students and residents by the Japanese Primary Care Association. Participants carried out four group activities to learn about health literacy. First, participants watched a skit of a conversation between two women with low health literacy to recognize the importance of promoting health literacy among citizens. Second, they practiced evaluating the reliability of health information based on the Health on the Net (HON) Code and "How to read health news" published by the British National Health Service. Third, they conducted medical interviews with patients who had brought documents containing questionable health information. Fourth, they practiced interviewing citizens with a low literacy in healthcare matters using the "teach back" technique and "Ask Me 3" questions. Many participants stated that our workshop was satisfying and understandable. We think it is necessary to hold such workshops to establish the concept of health literacy in our country, especially in the field of healthcare. In this report, we summarize the content of our workshop, and discuss future objectives for spreading and developing health literacy in Japan.

BACKGROUND/AIMS: Caudal-related homeobox 2 (Cdx2) is expressed in the human intestinal metaplastic mucosa and induces intestinal metaplastic mucosa in the Cdx2 transgenic mouse stomach. Atrophic gastritis and intestinal metaplasia commonly lead to gastric achlorhydria, which predisposes the stomach to bacterial overgrowth. In the present study, we determined the differences in gut microbiota between normal and Cdx2 transgenic mice, using quantitative reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR). METHODS: Twelve normal (control) and 12 Cdx2 transgenic mice were sacrificed, and the gastric, jejunal, ileac, cecal and colonic mucosa, and feces were collected. To quantitate bacterial microbiota, we used real-time qRTPCR with 16S rRNA gene-targeted, species-specific primers. RESULTS: The total numbers of bacteria in the gastric, jejunal, ileac, cecal, and colonic mucosa of the Cdx2 transgenic mice were significantly higher than those of the normal mice. The Bacteroides fragilis group and also Prevotella were not detected in the stomach of the normal mice, although they were detected in the Cdx2 transgenic mice. Moreover, the Clostridium coccoides group, Clostridium leptum subgroup, Bacteroides fragilis group, and Prevotella were not detected in the jejunum or ileum of the normal mice, although they were detected in the Cdx2 transgenic mice. The fecal microbiota of the normal mice was similar to that of the Cdx2 transgenic mice. CONCLUSIONS: Our results showed the differences in composition of gut microbiota between normal and Cdx2 transgenic mice, which may be caused by the development of gastric achlorhydria and intestinal metaplasia in Cdx2 transgenic mice.
Achlorhydria ; Animals ; Bacteria ; Bacteroides fragilis ; Clostridium ; Colon ; Feces ; Gastritis, Atrophic ; Genes, Homeobox* ; Humans ; Ileum ; Jejunum ; Metaplasia ; Mice ; Mice, Transgenic* ; Microbiota* ; Mucous Membrane ; Prevotella ; Stomach