Abstract

Kentaro Iwade*, Shizuka Shimoji, Hidenori Masaki, Kouichi Tanabe, Nobuyuki Goto and Fumiko Ootsu

ABSTRACT

When the seasons change, pharmacists at insurance pharmacies often instruct patients who are prescribed antiasthmatic drugs (asthma patients) to “please watch out for the onset of asthmatic attacks as the seasons change”. Pharmacists at insurance pharmacies anecdotally acknowledge that the number of asthma patients increases when the temperature declines. There are several reports about the associations between climate / environmental changes and the appearance of asthma symptoms, and Kobayashi, et al and Ishizaki, et al reported that asthma symptoms are likely to appear when the temperature differences on the previous day are over minus 3 degrees Celsius (- 3°C).[1,2] Piccoclo, et al also reported that the number of emergency outpatient visits by asthma patients increased when relative humidity became low.[3] However, most of these reports regard severe asthma symptoms, emergency outpatient visits, hospitalizations, and symptoms taking a sudden turn. Asthma patients who simply visit insurance pharmacies have comparatively favorable asthma control on a daily basis, and it is considered that a rapid worsening of their symptoms due to climate / environment changes is less likely to happen. However, it is suggested that even mild asthma attacks and having a cough could lessen their QOL. There have been few reports about how climate / environment changes affected such patients from an epidemiological perspective over a long period of time. Japan?s “Declaration on the Creation of the World?s Most Advanced IT Nation” on June 14th, 2013 declared that existing industries, business and regions will be revitalized by utilizing enormous amounts of data, so-called „big data? owned by public and private entities.[4] With the spread of electronic patient drug profiles and electronic receipts, insurance pharmacies now have big data collections which are significant, useful, and enormous, and which can be utilized easily. Several reports which studied flu infection status by analyzing data on the amount of prescription drugs taken used big data from insurance pharmacies.[5-7] This purpose of this study is to elucidate how climate and environmental changes affect the QOL of asthma patients who have relatively favorable asthma control, and we investigated the associations between the fluctuation in the number of asthmatic patients who visited insurance pharmacies and climate / environmental changes.