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Background. Both underweight and overweight are public health concerns in Japan. Several studies examined the association between health literacy (HL) and obesity status in the general population; however, there is limited information on young adults. In addition, the association between HL and underweight status has not been extensively investigated. Aim. To examine the association between HL and underweight/overweight status among young Japanese adults aged 20 to 39 years. Method. This study was based on a cross-sectional survey of population-representative adults. HL was assessed using a questionnaire validated in Japanese adults. Body mass index (BMI) was calculated using self-reported weight and height. Participants were divided into two groups by HL score using the median score (lower vs. higher HL). The association between HL and underweight (BMI <18.5) or overweight (BMI ≥25.0) was examined using multinomial logistic regression analyses after adjusting for potential confounders. Results. In total, 476 women and 454 men were included in the analyses. Prevalence of underweight and overweight was 20.8% and 10.3% in women and 8.8% and 20.3% in men, respectively. In women, 45.1% of normal weight, 47.5% of underweight, and 30.6% of overweight had higher HL. Among men, 50.3% of normal weight, 35.0% of underweight, and 44.6% of overweight had higher HL. Bivariate analyses showed no statistically significant association between HL level and underweight/overweight status. Even after adjusting for potential confounders, these associations did not change. Discussion and Conclusion. This study suggests that HL scores may not be associated with underweight or overweight status in Japanese adults.

We have established a collaboration system between community pharmacies and our hospital using the sharing tools of patient information such as tracing reports and continuous training sessions by the team-based learning method. In this study, we evaluated the clinical effectiveness of this collaboration system in patients treated with oral anti-cancer drugs as adjuvant chemotherapy for gastrointestinal cancers. This retrospective study involved outpatients who started adjuvant chemotherapy including tegafur-gimeracil-oteracil potassium or capecitabine during the pre-collaboration period (from January to September 2016) and the post-collaboration period (from August 2018 to April 2019) of 9 months, respectively. Forty-ve and 65 outpatients visited our hospital in the pre-collaboration and post-collaboration periods, respectively. The rate of treatment discontinuation due to side effects within 3 months of the start of treatment was signi cantly lower during the post-collaboration period than the pre-collaboration period (2 patients (3.1％) versus 7 patients (15.6％), P = 0.03). There were no signi cant differences between pre-and post-collaboration periods in the rates of emergency consultation and emergency hospitalization for 3 months after the start of treatment (emergency consultation: 9 patients (20.0％) versus 12 patients (18.5％), P = 1.00; emergency hospitalization: 6 patients (13.3％) versus 4 patients (6.2％), P = 0.31). These results suggest that this collaboration system could contribute to the reduction of treatment discontinuation due to the side effects of adjuvant chemotherapy for gastrointestinal cancers.