[Knowledge of guideline for asthma and a demand at the pharmacy--questionnaire based exploration].

BACKGROUND To achieve a good control for asthma, cooperation of pharmacists is necessary. It is important to establish the system that the patients easily obtain advice about asthma from pharmacists and to spread the guideline. METHODS For the first step, we explore the knowledge and usage of asthmatic guideline among pharmacists in the drug stores in this study. The questionnaires were distributed to 465 drug stores in the Seibu, minato-ku and bunnkyo-ku, Tokyo. RESULTS The knowledge of guideline was 79% but the existence of guideline booklet at the pharmacy was 24%. The major demand at the pharmacy was to distribute pamphlet around 10 pages which contained treatment at the pregnancy and prevention of asthma. DISCUSSION To spread usage of asthmatic guideline at the pharmacy, newly-devised plan is required.