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BackgroundThere is growing interest in the use of complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) throughout the world, however previous research done in Japan has focused primarily on CAM use in major cities. The purpose of this study was to develop and distribute a Japanese version of the International Complementary and Alternative Medicine Questionnaire (I-CAM-Q) to assess the use of CAM among people who visit rural Japanese family medicine clinics.MethodsUsing a Japanese version of the International Complementary and Alternative Medicine Questionnaire (I-CAM-Q), a cross-sectional survey was conducted in three rural family medicine clinics. All patients and those accompanying patients who met inclusion criteria were eligible to participate. Data were entered into SPSS Statistics and analyzed for use by age, gender, and location.ResultsOf the 519 respondents who participated in the project, 415 participants reported CAM use in the past 12 months (80.0%). When prayer is excluded, the prevalence of CAM use drops to 77.3% in the past year, or 403 respondents. The most common forms of CAM used by respondents were pain relief pads (n = 170, 32.8%), herbal medicines/supplements (n = 167, 32.2%), and massage by self or family (n = 166, 32.0%). Female respondents, individuals with higher levels of education, and those with poorer overall health status were more likely to use CAM than respondents without these characteristics. Only 22.8% of CAM therapies used were reported to physicians by survey participants.ConclusionsThese data indicate that CAM use in rural Japan is common. The results are consistent with previous studies that show that Japanese individuals are more interested in forms of CAM such as pain relief pads and massage, than in mind-body forms of CAM like relaxation and meditation. Due to the high utilization of certain CAM practices, and given that most CAM users do not disclose their CAM use to their doctors, we conclude that physicians in rural Japan would benefit by asking about CAM use during patient interviews, and by familiarizing themselves with the potential benefits and risks of commonly used CAM modalities.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (doi:10.1186/1472-6882-14-360) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

SUMMARYTo assess specialty choice and understanding of primary care among Japanese medical students, all students from seven Japanese medical schools (three public and four private) were surveyed by written questionnaire. A total of 3377 students provided data usable for this study. 89.8% of students wished to become clinicians, and 79.3% wished to have general clinical ability. About half of the respondents, 54.9%, replied that they had some or great interest in primary care, but their understanding of primary care was inadequate.Although almost half (56.3%) of the students answered that they had rich or some images of a general practitioner, this proportion was nearly the same among students in all years of medical school. While 1245 (36.9% of total) students (most of them in the 5th or 6th year) answered that they had experience in clinical training in hospitals, only 203 (6.0%) students had experience of working in clinics, and 129 (3.8%) students had experience in home visits and home care. An even greater number, 64.3%, replied that they had inadequate information about the career options available to them. Although many Japanese medical students wish to have broad clinical competence, their understanding of primary care is insufficient. In order to increase the number of primary care providers in Japan, the system of medical education must provide primary care physicians who serve as role models and information about post-graduate primary care training programs effectively.Post-graduate primary care training programs and rewarding positions for physicians who completed those programs should be increased immediately as well.

(2), 151-154 Open-ended questions, which allow patients to discuss their concerns freely, are widely considered an efficient method gathering medical information from patients during a medical interview. However, few studies have examined the relationship between the use of open-ended questions and the amount of information obtained from patients during the medical interview. This study examines this relationship using a relatively large sample size under more standardized conditions than in previous studies. The Japanese Group for Research on the Medical Interview undertook this research in [2002][2003]. A total of 1,527 medical students conducted medical interviews with standardized patients, and 1,220 met the inclusion criteria for this study. The interview was limited to five minutes. Evaluators (medical school faculty physicians) evaluated the use of open-ended questions during the medical interview. The reliability of the evaluation sheet was also examined. The amount of information obtained was measured through the medical interview evaluation sheet.The use of open-ended questions was positively related to the amount of information elicited from the patients (F = 41.0, p < 0.0001). This study provides data to support the hypothesis regarding the favorable relationship between the use of the open-ended questions and the amount of information from the patients.