Survey of Knowledge and Awareness on Hemorrhoids and Applicable Therapeutic Drugs in Consumers

Abstract

To clarify the knowledge and awareness of hemorrhoids per se and the therapeutic behavior in consumers, we conducted a survey with 60,000 consumers in Japan. The survey items included demographic characteristics (age and sex), knowledge and awareness of hemorrhoids per se and the therapeutic behavior, such as ambulant treatment and over-the-counter (OTC) medicine usage.

The survey result showed that the proportion of consumers having subjective hemorrhoidal symptoms is 10.0％, which consists of anal fissure (41.2％), external hemorrhoids (33.1％), internal hemorrhoids (26.8％), anal fistula (4.0％), and don't-know (18.8％) and that 25.5％ has prior experience with hemorrhoids. Importantly, 19.8％ possessing hemorrhoid-related symptoms in the population had no awareness of hemorrhoids. Of note, 72.6％ of consumers with subjective hemorrhoidal symptoms utilized neither the ambulant treatment nor OTC medicine, because many of them had shame, anxiety, and inadequate knowledge of hemorrhoids and the applicable therapy. In fact, there were few consumers who understood the existence and characteristic symptoms of three types of hemorrhoids. These findings indicate the need to engage in educational activities on hemorrhoids and applicable therapeutic drugs by offering accurate information from the perspective of pharmaceutical companies.