Abstract
Valid responses were obtained from 2,434 people (male: 1,226, female: 1,208) of ten to sixty years old via the Internet. Among the respondents, 80.7% had experience of acne (male: 79.0%, female: 82.5%) and more than 80% of male and female respondents had mild acne at the time of the survey. The medical examination rate was 16.8% (male: 14.6%, female: 18.6%). The rate of continuous hospital visits after initial treatment was only 33.3% in females, compared to 65.9% in males. More than 50% of respondents stated that they did not seek treatment at a hospital because they expected　spontaneous healing. Regarding prescribed drugs upon hospital visits, oral antibacterial agents were used by 65.8% of males and 43.1% of females, followed by vitamin preparations and traditional Chinese medicine. Topical antibacterial agents were prescribed for 63.2% of males and 49.7% of females. Adapalene was simultaneously prescribed for external use in 34.2% of males and 14.9% of females, and benzoyl peroxide was used by 21.1% of males and 5.4% of females. Monotherapy with an antibacterial drug for external use was prescribed for 23.7% of males and 48.6% of females. The overall satisfaction level with hospital visits was extremely high for 9.5% of males and 10.8% of females. The results of this survey show that patients with acne do not necessarily seek treatment actively, and that doctors may not observe therapeutic guidelines for acne vulgaris. The survey also suggested that information on new drugs for acne and on the importance of maintenance therapy should be provided to patients.

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Purpose: To investigate the status of adherence to topical antifungal agents and continued treatment, a survey on medical fee receipts and a questionnaire for patients with onychomycosis were conducted.
Methods: Adherence to treatment using oral antifungal agents and topical agents for onychomycosis was investigated. Also, online questionnaires were conducted to investigate the situation of onychomycosis treatment and consciousness of the patients.
Results & Conclusion: In the survey on medical fee receipts of onychomycosis and the patient questionnaire with onychomycosis, adherence to oral agents was likely to be higher than that with topical agents. The satisfaction level of both treatments was generally high. There were three trends with respect to treatment satisfaction: satisfaction with treatment effectiveness was higher with oral agents, satisfaction with less adverse effects was higher with topical agents, and satisfaction with the treatment duration was lower with topical agents. In the patient questionnaire on treatment results, there was a higher percentage of recovery in oral agents based on the physicians’ judgment, whereas discontinuation of treatment based on the patients’ own decision before recovery was higher with topical agents. Nearly half of the patients who discontinued the treatment regretted their decision to do so. The percentage of non-adherence were higher with topical agents than it was with oral agents. There were different reasons why patients decided to discontinue the treatment. The most frequent was difficulty in visiting hospitals due to busy schedules, while dissatisfaction with effectiveness and the long duration of treatment ranked among the top factors. The present study revealed that for adherence to treatment, it is important for patients to realize the effectiveness and it is necessary for physicians to inform patients of the treatment goals, duration of treatment and how to use the agents.

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