Objective: The purpose of this study was to investigate the number of drugs prescribed according to patient sex in all age groups using an insurance pharmacy dispensing database and to identify sex-specific differences in prescriptions.

Methods: Using dispensing receipt data for a 3-month period beginning from August 1, 2016, we investigated sex-specific differences in the number of drugs considering age group and drug class.

Results: Overall, 25,148 participants (12,943 male and 12,205 female) were included. Among male participants, the number of drugs prescribed increased with age, and in the 45-74-year age groups, the number of drugs prescribed was higher among men than among women, with lifestyle-related drugs being most commonly prescribed. In contrast, among women, the number of drugs prescribed increased moderately in the middle age group but increased rapidly after the age of 65 years.

Conclusion: According to the results, an increase in the number of drugs prescribed with an increase in age is driven not only by age but also considerably by sex. Estrogen is proposed as a major factor contributing to the sex-specific differences.

Aim: The purpose of the study was to determine possible alternative indicators of the ability to open pouches of one-dose packages from among activities of daily living to assess skillfulness in fingers and hands that can be verified orally.

Methods: Inpatients aged 65 years or higher who were being dispensed medications in one-dose packages were included in this study. The patients’ hand grip strength was measured using a grip strength meter. Pinch strength in both hands was measured using a pinch strength-measuring device. The patients’ responses to questions on activities of daily living related to hand dexterity and opening of pouches of one-dose packages were scored on a 5-point Likert scale. Multiple regression analysis was performed using the stepwise method, with the objective variable being the response score for the question on the opening of the pouches of one-dose packages and the explanatory variables being survey items that were significant in the correlation analysis using Spearman’s rank correlation coefficient.

Results: We analyzed data from 22 patients included in this study, whose median age was 81 years. The factor that was identified as influencing the openability score for the pouches of one-dose packages was the chopsticks use score (β＝0.615, P＝0.002).

Conclusion: We found an association between chopsticks use and the opening of pouches of one-dose packages. Furthermore, evaluation of chopsticks use was suggested to be a possible alternative indicator of the ease of opening pouches of one-dose packages in elderly patients.

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the potential benefits arising from pharmacists accompanying doctors during their rounds in long-term care insured facilities for the elderly. Based on the medical records, the pharmaceutical content provided to physicians, medication history of residents, and residents’ level of care were analyzed. There were 157 interventions related to drug reduction that contributed to polypharmacy decrease. These interventions were maintained for six months and led to a cost reduction of approximately 1.67 million yen. Furthermore, one year after these interventions, a trend toward positive correlation was recorded between the improvement in residents’ level of care and the decrease in the number of medications taken. Overall, this study highlighted that pharmacists attending consultant-led rounds at long-term care insured facilities for the elderly was advantageous with regards to reducing polypharmacy and pharmaceutical costs.

We conducted a survey to assess changes in dosage of drugs for treatment of heart failure patients. The survey included all patients admitted to the Mie-Heart Center for heart failure treatment between July 2021 and December 2021. We included 80 patients whose medications could be confirmed after one year. The patients were divided into three groups according to LVEF at baseline: HFrEF, HFmrEF, and HFpEF groups. The endpoint was the change in heart failure medication dose at baseline and after 1 year. Dose changes were classified into “no administration”, “same dose”, “increased dose”, “additional dose”, and “reduced dose”. Statistical analysis was performed by cross-tabulation and chi-square test and residual analysis. There were significant differences in MRA for dose change overall (p＜0.001) and dose change overall for RA system inhibitors (p＝0.001) and SGLT2 inhibitors (p＝0.023), and the adjusted residual ʻno dose’ for all three factors was higher in the HFpEF group. Furthermore, there was a significant difference in dose change overall for β-blockers (p＝0.005), and the adjusted residual ʻdose increase’ was higher in the HFrEF group. Our findings suggest that there were many patients in the HFrEF group who continued to take MRA and RA system inhibitors at the induction dose and increased the dose of β-blockers, suggesting a tendency by medical staff to administer additional SGLT2 inhibitors.