Foods sold over the counter can often cause symptoms of food allergy; therefore, we measured specific ingredients (egg, milk, wheat, buckwheat, and peanuts) in 81 products of a variety of food types from 20 companies purchased from various locations; convenience stores (6 companies, 20 products) and fast food shops (6,29), and rice bowl dishes (1,3), bread (2,5), takeout sushi (2,11), and Japanese-style confections (3,13).
The specific ingredients were detected at levels of 10 μg/g or above in 27 of the 81 products. In products other than rice cakes, wafer cakes filled with bean jam, and frozen desserts the specific ingredients were detected at several μg/g or more. Differences were seen in the quality of information provided about food allergens depending on the business sales style, and there were also failures to provide some information or to provide excessive information. For example, all companies provided information about fast foods, rice bowl dishes and Japanese-style confections, as did 2 of the 6 convenience store companies; however, no information regarding food allergens was provided for bread and takeout sushi. In addition, no information was provided for 9 of products which specific ingredients have been detected at levels of 10 μg/g or above. When we contacted the companies that might have provided incorrect information, they immediately made the necessary corrections.
To select safe food for patients, precise information about the specific ingredients needs to be provided by point-of-purchase displays, websites and in other forms, even for food sold over the counter without an obligation to label.

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Background: To discuss and estimate the economic benefits gained by fluticasone propionate (FP) for asthmatic children over hospitalization, emergency room visit, unscheduled visit, and absence (representative by asthma-related episode).
Method: Data on asthma-related episodes in pre and post 6 months of FP use were derived from a survey of FP on asthma-related episodes. Medical cost was evaluated by using macro-cost estimate approach.
Results: Discussion of asthma-related episodes in-between before and after the use of FP in one hundred seventy-nine valuable subjects revealed that FP use significantly reduced asthma-related episodic costs of approximately 57,000 yen per 6 months (p<0.001), whereas total drug acquisition costs were significantly increased by approximately 4,000 yen per 6 months (p<0.05). When sensitivity analyses were performed, the aforementioned cost-saving results might be robust.
Conclusion: The economic evaluation of FP demonstrated that it is sufficient, whereas an acquisition cost was increased.

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Background: Although the importance of drug adherence is stressed in children with asthma, actual adherence is not satisfactory.
Purpose: To evaluate what is necessary to improve drug adherence.
Method: Questionnaire-based survey was carried out to the parents of 71 children with asthma at the age of 2 to 12.
Results: More than half of the parents preferred oral leukotriene receptor antagonist (oral LTRA), compared to inhaled steroids (ICS), as controller medicine. While no parents of those using oral LTRA preferred ICS, 30.8% of the parents of those using ICS actually preferred oral LTRA. In contrast to the initial anticipation, those with good knowledge about asthma showed less drug adherence.
Conclusion: As parents prefer oral LTRA as asthma controller, enough education is necessary before introduction of ICS to those who need it. As good knowledge about asthma does not necessarily leads to good drug adherence, new methods to improve it, such as daily-life routinization, might be necessary.

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In order to investigate the treatment and management of childhood asthma patients before the publication of the Japanese Pediatric Guideline for the Treatment and Management of Asthma (JPGL) 2005, we conducted a survey of pediatricians in Japan. Three thousand three hundred and ninety six pediatricians answered the questions. Since the same survey had been conducted several months after the publication of JPGL2002, we compared this result with the previous one.
The ratio of pediatricians who answered “asthma patients have been increasing since 3 years ago” was decreased in comparison to the previous survey. The ratio of pediatricians who answered “the patients who visited and entered hospitals because of acute asthma attacks or severe attacks were decreasing” was increased in comparison to the previous survey. Ninety six percent of pediatricians answered that they were utilizing JPGL”.
There were no significant changes regarding the treatment for acute asthma exacerbation. As for the controller medications, pediatricians who selected sustained release theophylline, DSCG+β₂ stimulant inhalation and oral anti-allergic drugs were decreased, and those who selected inhaled cortico-steroid and leukotriene receptor antagonists were increased. As the treatment had not been changed in the revision of JPGL in 2004, those changes in controller medications were thought to be due to more diffuse spread of JPGL2002 (2004), or due to lectures at medical meetings or medical journals.

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