Objective: Along with the globalization of the Japanese economy, the number of international students in Japan has gradually increased. Under these circumstances, international students to visit pharmacies for self-medication are expected to increase. Thus, we carried out a questionnaire survey on international students conducting self-medication using non-prescription drugs, and examined its problem.
Method: To clarify the status of self-medication using OTC drugs by students studying abroad, multiple-choice and free description-style questionnaire sheets written in Japanese or English were distributed to 30 international students based in Kobe City. The sheets were independently completed by the students, excluding those who had difficulty in sufficiently comprehending the questions and required the researcher’s oral explanations for assistance.
Result: While 90.0% of the respondents answered that they occasionally use non-prescription drugs in their own countries, only 60.0% answered that they had experience of purchasing the drugs in Japan. When purchasing OTC drugs, 15.2% faced <difficulty in reading> instructions printed on their packages. While 30.0% regarded <pharmacists’ advice> as important to purchase appropriate drugs in their home countries, only 23.3% sought such advice in Japan.
Conclusion: These results revealed a tendency for international students to purchase OTC drugs following pharmacists’ advice less frequently in Japan than in their home countries despite their literacy difficulties. In the future, we hope to examine issues such as possible active communication by pharmacists and the drugstore structure, so as to promote self-medication through purchasing drugs at Japanese pharmacies. As a result, we hope to contribute to making Japanese pharmacies more foreign user-friendly in a real sense.
