東京都における長期データベースに基づく健康食品摂取に伴う健康被害事例の発現傾向の検討

抄録

The proportion of individuals using health foods and dietary supplements has been increasing recently. Serious adverse events, such as severe hepatic dysfunction, have been associated with Chinese dietary foods. Nevertheless, adverse events are rarely reported to the Japanese regulatory authorities. The resulting lack of information makes early detection and prevention of adverse events difficult.

In this study, we investigated the trends in health food-related adverse events using a long-term database managed by the Tokyo Metropolitan Government. We extracted and analyzed the following information: (1) reporters (physicians or pharmacists), (2) cases of adverse events, and (3) health foods suspected to be related.

Out of 260 cases of adverse events associated with health food consumption, 153 cases were reported by physicians and 107 cases by pharmacists. Annual trends revealed that the number of cases peaked in 2006 and 2007. With regard to the purpose of consumption, physicians tended to report health maintenance, health improvement, and treatment; whereas pharmacists most frequently reported treatment. Compared to cases reported by pharmacists, those reported by physicians trended be more severe.

In conclusion, our results demonstrated the importance of accumulating case reports in order to identify trends in health food-associated adverse events.