The residual and inappropriate use of therapeutic drugs goes beyond a clinical problem; it is also an economic problem that causes inefficient allocation of health care resources. Overseas, there have been attempts to examine this influencing factor using traditional health behavior theory. However, those targeting the Japanese population are rare. Furthermore, there is not enough information about the influence of health literacy on the continuous consumption behavior of pharmaceuticals, which has been the focus of much attention in recent years. In this study, we extended the analytical model based on health behavior theory to include health literacy and attempted to reexamine the influence of health literacy on the continuous consumption behavior of pharmaceuticals by path analysis. A total of 1,200 patients, 300 each with a chronic disease (hypertension and diabetes), 300 each with an acute disease (antimicrobials), and 300 each with a need for continuous use of topical medications (glaucoma) were surveyed via the web (no overlap of diseases). Based on previous studies, path analyses were conducted using continuous consumption and intentional/unintentional discontinuation as objective variables and we examined: 1) a full hierarchical model in which all concepts in the health belief model mediate health literacy; 2) a partial hierarchical model in which only self-efficacy mediates health literacy; and 3) a model in which all factor variables are parallel without hierarchy. As a result, model 3, the parallel model, was adopted. The order of influence indicated that addressing unintentional interruptions, such as forgetting to take medication, was given the highest priority, followed by increasing patient self-efficacy, and that consideration should also be given to intentional interruptions, especially in diabetes and glaucoma. On the other hand, health literacy was shown to have a lesser impact than the other concepts.

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In this study, we developed finance and economic education lessons, centered on billing using an online game that simulates the “Gacha” experience and the effect of the “nudge” action. The effect of the “nudge” action in the online game was analyzed using two groups: one with prior education on self-restraint by viewing the “Stanford marshmallow experiment” and one without. Students, who have received prior education and have referred them, tend to show a high interest in self-restraint and patience, and set an upper limit to the amount of usable money in the online game. To use the online game effectively for learning billing system as part of economic education, it is important not only to provide the chance of the simulated online game but also to enhance students’ self-restraint and patience. The results showed that the “Gacha” simulated experience helped the students to realize the importance of budgeting their money per their own way of thinking and the amount of usable money, as well as the importance of self-restraint to stop the desire to pay bills, and to understand that patience and self-restraint are important skills in life.

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We empirically analyzed how positively financial literacy has an influence on the demand for advice on savings and investments. We have found that people with higher financial literacy are more likely to have a higher demand for (or hope for) advice on savings and investments, and actually take it, which indicates that the demand for advice is complementary to financial literacy. Furthermore, using the framework of the Theory of Planned Behavior, we examined why the divergence between the hope for advice and the employment of it occurs, and what channels financial literacy influences the demand for advice. The results have shown that not only the hope for advice but also Behavioral control (i.e., factors that promote or inhibit behavior) influence the adoption of advice, and that hoping for advice and adopting it do not always coincide, but they diverge in the way Behavioral control work.

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