Although the prevalence of AAP prescribing has decreased, especially among patients with vascular dementia, it remains high. Efforts to reduce AAP use should focus on secondary care institutions in nonmetropolitan regions.
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Background: Alzheimer's dementia is the most common dementia. However, recently, choline alfoscerate is prescribed for treating Alzheimer's dementia, although it is not a treatment for this disease. Purpose: To analyze the prescription patterns of choline alfoscerate as a dementia treatment for patients with Alzheimer's disease and to analyze, as well as the factors affecting choline alfoscerate prescription. Method: The 2016 HIRA-NPS data was used in this study. The code of Alzheimer's dementia is F00 in the ICD-10 disease classification code. We analyzed the demographic, clinical, and regional characteristics associated with donepezil, rivastigmine, galantamine, memantine, and choline alfoscerate prescriptions. All statistical and data analyse were conducted by SAS 9.4 and Excel. Results: For patients with Alzheimer's disease, choline alfoscerate was the second most prescribed after donepezil. Analysis results showed that choline alfoscerate was more likely to be prescribed to men than to women, and more likely to be prescribed by local health centers than by medical institutions. Moreover, choline alfoscerate was highly likely to be prescribed at neurosurgical departments, among medical departments. Conclusions: This study confirmed that choline alfoscerate was prescribed considerably for patients with Alzheimer's dementia. Further studies valuating its clinical validity should be performed to clarify whether choline alfoscerate prescription is appropriate for treating Alzheimer's dementia.

Objective: Seoul City has implemented the Safe Pharmacy in 2013. This study aimed to ascertain the success factors of the smoking cessation service of the Safe Pharmacy. Methods: The data for the smoking cessation registration cards were obtained from the pharmacies which participated in 2014 Safe Pharmacy. The sample included 289 smokers in 6 districts who participated at least one sessions of smoking cessation service. the service included both behavioral intervention and nicotine replacement therapy. In order to identify the effectiveness of the smoking cessation service, logistic regression analysis was used. The dependent variable was the success of quitting smoking at the 4th week. The independent variables included age, sex, employment, chronic disease, district, smoking amount, registration path, supporters for quitting smoking and number of service sessions. Results: Fifty eight point eight percent of the sample successfully quit smoking at the 4th week. Unemployment, higher smoking amount, and less service sessions were negatively related to the success of quitting smoking. There were differences in the success rate across districts. Age, sex, chronic disease, registration path, and anti-smoking supporters were not related to the success rate. Conclusion: Pharmacy can be an effective community resource for smoking cessation. Factors that could increase the effectiveness of smoking cessation service of the Safe Pharmacy and possible ways to enhance the participation of pharmacies in smoking cessation services were also discussed.

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