Objective: To determine the socio-economic and educational backgrounds of first-generation college students (FGCs) among Japanese medical students, with the aim of contributing to the improvement of medical school admissions.　Methods: A nationwide cross-sectional online questionnaire survey was conducted. A total of 1,849 medical students and 295 nursing students participated.　Results: The proportion of FGCs among medical students was 12.1%, lower than that among nursing students (39.4%). The backgrounds of FGCs were compared with those of non-FGCs (students whose parents were university graduates). FGCs were more likely to come from small cities and from outside the Kanto/Kansai regions. They reported lower annual family incomes and had fewer doctors or dentists among their relatives. FGCs attended cram schools less frequently, were more likely to have graduated from national or public high schools, and had higher academic grades. They applied exclusively to national or public medical schools, were more likely to take regional quota or recommended AO entrance examinations, passed these exams immediately after high school graduation, and were more often enrolled in their first-choice and national or public medical schools. FGCs also expressed a stronger intention to work in less-populated areas in the future.　Discussion: The backgrounds of FGCs differ significantly from those of non-FGCs. Further investigation into the challenges and potential of FGCs in medicine is warranted.

OBJECTIVE: To examine the socioeconomic backgrounds of medical students who intend to practice in less-populated areas.METHODS: A nationwide online questionnaire survey was conducted among 1,822 Japanese medical students (1,024 from public universities and 798 from private universities) across 40 medical schools.RESULTS: Regarding preferred future practice locations, 25.2% of students intended to work in areas with populations over 1,000,000; 36.8% in areas with 200,000-1,000,000; 17.2% in areas with 50,000-200,000; and 4.8% in areas with fewer than 50,000 residents. Students who intended to work in less-populated areas (population >200,000) were more likely to have grown up in such areas, come from families with lower annual incomes, have fewer physician parents, have graduated from public high schools, and be enrolled in regional quota programs. Logistic regression analysis identified having a family background in a less-populated area (OR 9.46) and enrollment in a regional quota program (OR 2.72) as significant predictors of the intention to work in less-populated areas.DISCUSSION: There is a correlation between medical students’ intentions to work in less-populated areas and their socioeconomic backgrounds, which are important factors to consider when addressing the uneven distribution of physicians in Japan.

Palmoplantar pustulosis is a chronic inflammatory skin disease involving the palms and soles where mild accumulation of helper T cells and neutrophils in the dermis histologically are observed. Leukoencephalopathy is a brain disease affecting white matter but is rarely accompanied by skin lesion. Here we report a unique case of leukoencephalopathy accompanied by palmoplantar pustulosis with identical pathological feature of helper T cell accumulation in both the brain and skin, suggesting a possible link in the pathogenesis.

Classification of food and pharmaceutical products are different. In the proper use of pharmaceutical products, it is essential for a medical consumer to receive the drug information about effectiveness, safety and quality of it. On the other hand, since legal classification between medicines and dietary supplements was based their cultures, the classification of each drug is different in each country. Melatonin is a hormone produced by the pineal gland and used for improvement of the jet lag. We searched melatonin product information of Japan and the United States by using Internet search mainly and investigated the relationship between amount of product information and product classification. Melatonin is classified as a dietary supplement in the United States, the product information of efficacy and safety is displayed as “Supplement Facts” and the use of melatonin in children is not recommended. On the other hand, melatonin is classified as a pharmaceutical product in Japan, but is not produced in Japan. Therefore, it is difficult to have it for Japanese customers, and then they personally import using the Internet with their self-responsibility. However it is difficult to obtain its appropriate information for consumers, because of the regulation of the Pharmaceutical Affairs Law. It has been reported that the poisoning accident by the excessive intake of melatonin already. It will increase the risk of the health problem to purchase melatonin through the Internet more. Therefore, we concluded that Internet purchase of Medicines had a high risk for Japanese customers since there was not sufficient drug information.

An epidemiological survey on allergic conditions of 58 male (aged 38.6±11.8yrs) and 47 female (aged 42.2 ± 9.6yrs) farmers engaged in growing chrysanthemums.
Among the subjects, 47% of males and 62% of females had complaints of at least one of inquired allergic symptoms associated with the work. The immediate type of allergic reaction on nasal and/ or upper respiratory system raised in the process of sorting flowers in the working room and delayed ype of contact dermatitis in pinching the lateral bud of chrysanthemums or spraying agricultural chemicals in the field were the main complaints of those farmers.
Incidence of positive reaction for patch testing to six kinds of chrysanthemums was 5% for males and 17% for females and that of eight kinds at agricultural chemicals was 34% and 45% for each sex. And relatively high incidence was also observed in those subjects from other immunological tests such as determination of serum immunoglobulin, prick testing and calculation of eosinophil in blood and rhinorrhoea.
There were 39 (67%) males and 36 (77%) females who had at least one of the abnormal finding of those test items above mentioned. However, not the particular kind of Chrysanthemum cultivated in that area was found to be strong causative allergen for the observed allergic conditions.
From these results, it is indicated that relatively high incidence of allergic disorders may be found in the chrysanthemum growers due to inhalation and/or contact of some kinds of allergens introduced from the process of growing to forwarding, such allergen as Chrysanthemum itself, agricultural chemicals and other elements.