• Korean Journal of Clinical Pharmacy
• /
• v.33 no.1
• /
• pp.35-42
• /
• 2023

Objective: There is a growing interest in the safe use of medications in pregnant and breastfeeding women. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to find ways to improve education about safe medication use by investigating the status of medication use of pregnant and breastfeeding women, and by evaluating their knowledge, attitudes, and practices toward safe medication use. Methods: In this study, a self-report questionnaire was conducted on pregnant or breastfeeding women in Seoul and Gyeonggi Province. The questionnaire consisted of the following four sections; 1) sociodemographic characteristics of participants, 2) experience of medication use, 3) experience of being educated on safe medication use, and 4) knowledge, attitudes, and practices about medication use during pregnancy/breastfeeding. Results: A total of 203 participants were included in the analysis. Of these, 38.4% reported to take prescription medications during pregnancy and breastfeeding. Regarding education on safe medication use, nearly 90% of the participants answered that they were not educated or were unsure whether they had it. In the knowledge-attitude-practice evaluation on safe medication use, the knowledge level was the highest (mean, 4.45), followed by the attitude level (mean, 3.58) and the practice level (mean, 3.33). The preferred education method of the participants was online education using a computer or mobile phone application, etc. Conclusions: This study suggests that there is a need for systematic and effective education that can link knowledge of safe medication use with attitudes and practices in pregnant and breastfeeding women.

• Korean Journal of Clinical Pharmacy
• /
• v.30 no.3
• /
• pp.196-205
• /
• 2020

Background: The indication of denosumab for osteoporosis was expanded from second-line to first-line therapy in 2019. The aim of this study was to evaluate the efficacy of denosumab as both first- and second-line therapy in postmenopausal women with osteoporosis and osteopenia with risk factors by using the Fracture Risk Assessment Tool (FRAX). Methods: We conducted a medication use evaluation of denosumab in 98 patients who had been treated three or more times for osteoporosis or osteopenia at Chungnam National University Hospital from July 1^st, 2017 to January 31^st, 2020. Risk factors were identified using quantitative N-gram analyses of FRAX estimations. Patient information, including menopause status and results of bone mineral density tests (T-score), was obtained from electronic medical records. Results: Age, body mass index (BMI), prior medication use, and T-score were identified as risk factors and were included as variables in the evaluation of denosumab use. Since no significant differences were detected between groups, denosumab is likely effective regardless of age or BMI. In addition, no significant difference was detected in T-scores following denosumab treatment, between groups who took bisphosphonates and selective estrogen receptor modulators (SERMs) with denosumab as first-line therapy for postmenopausal osteoporosis. Denosumab may, therefore, be effective as second-line therapy. Conclusion: Efficacy of denosumab was evaluated in postmenopausal women with osteoporosis. Denosumab may be used as first- and second-line therapy regardless of age, BMI, and prior use of bisphosphonates and SERMs.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
• /
• v.16 no.14
• /
• pp.6055-6059
• /
• 2015

Background: Medication policy development in Thailand is continually promoting rational drug use. Letrozole, an endocrine therapy drug, is usually prescribed for post-menopausal status early and advanced stage breast cancer. After Ministry of Public Health announced Letrozole as compulsory licensed drug in 2009, more breast cancer patients can access to this drug at low cost especially those within universal coverage schemes. To ensure that Letrozole is rationally prescribed, the drug utilization study was conducted. Objectives: The aim of this study was to describe the appropriate use of Letrozole in breast cancer and the relationship between appropriate use and health benefit schemes. Materials and Methods: A retrospective study to evaluate use of Letrozole in breast cancer patients was performed for six months between January - June 2010 in seven regional cancer hospitals, Thailand. All prescriptions of Letrozole were identified from pharmacy dispensing databases and prescription papers. A medical record review was also performed to evaluate appropriate use referring to the drug use evaluation criteria. The approved criterion of this study was referred from the guideline of Thai National Formulary version 2010. Results: There were 681 prescriptions of Letrozole for 254 breast cancer patients with an average age of $58.6{\pm}10.0years$. The patients in universal coverage scheme (UCS), civil servant medication benefit scheme (CSMBS) and social security scheme (SSS) were 77.7%, 18.5% and 8.7% respectively. 10.6% were prescribed Letrozole for the first time. Letrozole were prescribed by oncologists (82.8%). The average number of tablets per prescription was $58{\pm}10$. Calcium supplements were prescribed concomitant with Letrozole for 19.4%. To assess drug use evaluation criteria, 45 prescriptions were excluded because of uncompleted clinical data, 636 prescriptions were evaluated. The study showed 86 prescriptions (13.5%) with inappropriate use including 6 (0.9%) not prescribed for estrogen receptor (ER) and/or progesterone receptor (PR) positive, 31 (4.9%) not prescribed for post-menopausal and 49 (7.7%) not prescribed for an appropriate duration. Appropriate use percentages in different health benefit schemes were similar, 85.7% of CSMBS, 86.4% of SSS and 86.7% of UCS. The relationship between health benefit scheme and appropriate use of Letrozole was not significantly different, ${\chi}^2$ (2, N = 636) = 0.081, p > 0.05. Conclusions: The study showed inappropriate use in breast cancer patients because of non-compliance with duration, menopausal status and hormone receptor requirements. To prescribe appropriate indication did not referred to the appropriate practice along the treatment. Drug use evaluation proved very useful for detecting the sign of inappropriate use and allows immediate feedback to the stakeholder for developing medication policy in the future. Importantly, there was no significantly difference in appropriate use of Letrozole across health benefit schemes.

• Korean Journal of Health Education and Promotion
• /
• v.31 no.2
• /
• pp.41-53
• /
• 2014

Objectives: The purpose of this study was to evaluate the education contents on safe use of medications in healthcare textbooks for elementary, middle and high schools. Methods: We examined 6 textbooks for the $5^{th}$ grade, 4 textbooks for middle school, 3 textbooks for high school, and 5 education materials published by the Korea Food and Drug Administration, National Health Insurance Service, and Seoul City Government. To evaluate the contents in health textbooks, we developed the 30 evaluation items. Results: Middle school textbooks had the most educational contents followed by high school and elementary school textbooks. Public education materials for the teenagers included more educational contents than those for children. The education material published by National Health Insurance Service had the highest score and the rest of the books earned under 15. And there were no core contents in medication education. Conclusions: Medication education through health textbooks should be strengthened to raise the level of medication awareness, to use medications safely, to prevent the drug abuse and misuse, and to establish the responsible judgment of medication information in the mass media. The current contents were found to be insufficient to meet these goals of medication education.

• Journal of Korean Academy of Nursing Administration
• /
• v.16 no.2
• /
• pp.152-161
• /
• 2010

Purpose: The aim of this project was to develop a patient safety-focused inservice education program for surgical nurse and to test the effects of this program. Methods: Methodological designs for instruments development, a pretest-posttest and a posttest design were employed. After the education, nurses' satisfaction, confidence, usefulness and application of 137 nurses were evaluated at 15 surgical units of a tertiary teaching hospital in Seoul, Korea. The education contents are 6 skill areas (infusion pump use, suction, chest tube drainage, oxygen administration, nebulizer use, insulin administration) and medication knowledge. Teaching methods were lecture, instructor demonstration, and 1:1 skill test. Descriptive statistics, Wilcoxon test, Spearman's correlation and Stepwise regression were used. Results: Satisfaction scores for skills and medication education were 4.00-4.21 (out of 5), The more performance frequency in 6 skills, the higher score in confidence as well as in usefulness and application, and the higher satisfaction with the program, the higher score in usefulness, application, confidence, and medication knowledge. Medication knowledge improved after the education (Z=-7,757, p<.001). Significant predictors of skill confidence were application of skills in job performance, medication confidence, and career in present unit. Conclusion: The results of this study suggest that systematic and continuous inservice education will improve patient safety by promoting nursing quality.

• YAKHAK HOEJI
• /
• v.55 no.3
• /
• pp.195-202
• /
• 2011

Generic medication market has been increased for economic reasons in Korea. Health authorities worldwide recommend the use of generic medications nowadays. However, patients in Korea are not familiar with the generic medications and considerable percent of those do not know the definition of the generic medications. The purpose of this study was to evaluate adults' knowledge and perception on the generic medications at community pharmacies in Korea. This study was a 11-questionnaire survey conducted from August 9, 2010 to August 27, 2010. Of the 204 respondents, 63 (30.9%) responded that they knew what a generic medication was, but only 16 (25.4%) of those answered that generic medications had the same efficacy as brand medications. When pharmacists were the source of generic medication information, more patients reported having knowledge about the definition of generic medications correctly compared with other sources. Patients with negative experience with generic medications within 6 months were more reluctant to generic substitution suggested by a pharmacist than those with positive experience. Based on the results of this study, further studies should be conducted to establish the best way to provide generic medication information for patients.

• Child Health Nursing Research
• /
• v.28 no.4
• /
• pp.259-268
• /
• 2022

Purpose: Nursing students are susceptible to medication safety incidents in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) related to a lack of communication experience. The purpose of the present study was to investigate the impact of a NICU medication safety simulation (NMSS) focusing on communication clarity, patient hand-off confidence, and patient safety competency in senior-year nursing students. Methods: The study utilized a nonequivalent control group pretest-posttest design. In total, 60 nursing students were assigned to two groups. The experimental group participated in the NMSS, which included three medication error scenarios. Pairs of students completed the scenarios together in 10 to 20 minutes. Data were analyzed using the chi-squared test, independent t test, and ANCOVA. Results: The experimental group showed significant improvements in communication clarity (p=.015), and patient safety competency (p<.001) compared to the control group. Using the pretest values as covariates, patient hand-off confidence scores significantly increased (p=.027). Conclusion: Implementing the NMSS focusing on communication in the pediatric nursing curriculum helped students to communicate clearly and concisely about medication errors, and its use is recommended to promote patient safety competency in the NICU.

• YAKHAK HOEJI
• /
• v.54 no.3
• /
• pp.174-179
• /
• 2010

Acetaminophen is one of the most commonly used over-the-counter medication in Korea. It is a safe and effective medication for the treatment of mild to moderate pain or fever when used in therapeutic doses. However, acetaminophen overdose is a frequent cause of acute liver failure. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the acetaminophen use for adult patients at community pharmacies in Korea. This study was a 11-questionnaire survey conducted from December 15, 2009 to January 5, 2010. Of the 204 respondents, 117 (57.4%) had used acetaminophen products within 6 months. Only 20 (9.8%) reported having knowledge about the daily maximum doses of acetaminophen, and 3 out of 20 knew it correctly. Only 10 (4.9%) reported having knowledge about the potentialtoxicity of acetaminophen overdose, and 7 out of 10 knew that acetaminophen overdose could cause liver toxicity. The results of this study indicates a need for pharmacists to educate patients regarding the appropriate doses and potential toxicities of acetaminophen.

• The Journal of Korean Medicine
• /
• v.25 no.1
• /
• pp.142-151
• /
• 2004

Objectives : To document the use and out-of-pocket expenditure of complementary and alternative medicine(CAM) in Korean adult population. Methods : Nationwide, random-sampled, and population-weighted telephone survey was conducted. The sample size of respondents was 1,000(age over 18). The respondents were asked about their use, out-of pocket expenditure of CAM in the past 12 months. SAS 8.0 statistic package was used for checking the relevance between each variables by performing $x^2-test$ and variance evaluation. Results : In 2001, 64.0% of people experienced more than one alternative therapy and the beneficiary took therapy average figure of 2.07. Alternative therapies were generally used for health promotion(73.7%) rather than curing the disease(26.3%). The most common therapies included Medication(30.2%), Physical-therapy(21.9%) health implements(20.8%), herb medication(19.2%), diet therapy(14.3%) etc. Average annual out-of-pocket expenditure was ￡<192,186. Use varied according to age, living province, income, and education, while cost expenditure did according to sex, health condition, income, education. Conclusions : The use of CAM in Korea is very large and the expenditure for them is 22.6% of national medical expenditure. It shows great need of political and academic approach.

• Korean Journal of Adult Nursing
• /
• v.27 no.6
• /
• pp.665-672
• /
• 2015

Purpose: The aims of current study were to assess the inhaler competency and medication adherence, and to identify association of inhaler competency with medication adherence in patients with obstructive lung disease. Methods: We did a secondary analysis of the Hanyang Obstructive Pulmonary Evaluation data in a single institution from June 2014 to April 2015 after an approval of Institutional Review Board. A total of 150 patients with asthma or chronic obstructive lung disease participated in the study. Inhaler competency was evaluated accuracy in each step for using metered dose inhaler. Medication adherence was calculated using actually dispensed doses based on the prescribed inhaler doses. Results: Older adults (${\geq}65$) had lower competency in using inhaler (66.7 vs 83.3, z=-4.52, p<.001) and poorer medication adherence (67.7 vs 91.8, $x^2=14.06$, p<.001) than adults (<65). Inhaler competency was associated with medication adherence (p=.26, p=.001). Surprisingly, more than 50% of patients were current smokers. Conclusion: Inhaler competency and medication adherence were lower in older adults with obstructive lung disease than those in adult-age patients. Therefore, an individual education program for older patients should be developed to improve the rates of proper use of inhalers. Nursing management for obstructive lung disease should focus on developing behavioral intervention strategies for smoking cessation.