In pediatric pharmacotherapy, parents often play a central role in medication management and administration support, and continuous support from community pharmacists is important. However, it remains unclear how continuity of pharmacy use is associated with parent-reported evaluations of pharmacists. This study conducted a web-based survey of 1,788 parents of children younger than 6 years and examined the association between these factors. Parent-reported evaluations of pharmacists were assessed using items adapted based on the Japanese version of the Medical Interview Satisfaction Scale (MISS-21J), with Distress relief, Communication comfort, and Rapport used as evaluation indicators. Multiple linear regression analyses showed that, compared with the usually same pharmacy group, the always same pharmacy group had significantly higher Distress relief and Rapport scores and a significantly lower Communication comfort score. The different pharmacy each time group had a significantly lower Distress relief score than the usually same pharmacy group, whereas no significant differences were observed for Communication comfort or Rapport. These findings suggest that consistent use of the same pharmacy may be associated with parents’ perceived distress relief and rapport with pharmacists. However, the observed differences were small, and their practical and clinical relevance remains uncertain. Further studies are needed to confirm these findings using validated measures and medication-related or clinical outcomes.

Oral administration of aqueous extracts of myoga (Zingiber mioga) alleviates fatty liver disease by decreasing liver weight and hepatic lipogenic gene expression in high-fat diet-fed mice. In the present study, we investigated whether aqueous myoga extract affects biomarkers of metabolic dysfunction-associated steatotic liver disease (MASLD) and insulin resistance-inducing hepatokines in human hepatocytes with MASLD features derived from humanized murine livers in vitro. The results showed that myoga extract decreased intracellular triglyceride content, leading to a reduction in leucine-rich α2 glycoprotein, an MASLD progression marker. Furthermore, myoga extract favorably modulated the secretion of hepatokines, suppressing insulin resistance-promoting hepatokines such as selenoprotein P, while enhancing the secretion of the beneficial hepatokine fibroblast growth factor 21. These findings demonstrated that the myoga extract restores hepatokine balance in MASLD-like hepatocytes in the PXB-cells LA model and facilitated the practical application of this regional specialty in advanced functional foods for the management of MASLD and related metabolic disorders.

Volatile organic compounds (VOCs) in indoor air are emitted from a wide variety of consumer products and building materials and are routinely inhaled through daily activities. Owing to their effects on human health, identifying VOCs from emission sources associated with indoor air pollution is important for effective exposure management. In particular, VOCs from time-varying emission sources, such as daily activities including cleaning, cooking, and eating, often exhibit complex patterns and require sophisticated methodologies for accurate source identification. This study applied sequential air sampling combined with multivariate analysis to identify VOCs from gradual emission sources, one of the time-varying types, in a workplace. Non-targeted analytical data from sequential indoor air samples were analyzed using principal component analysis (PCA) to visualize indoor air quality patterns. The samples were grouped into three clusters: Group I was characterized by decamethylcyclopentasiloxane (D5), possibly associated with the application of personal care products during the hours when people were present in or near the room; Group II was characterized by toluene, ethyl acetate, and trichloroethylene; Group III was located near the center of the PCA score plot. Notably, individual VOCs found by our method were major components of the temporal changes in total VOC observed during multi-day sampling. This approach can be useful for identifying VOCs from gradual emission sources, particularly those related to occupant activities and product use.