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Background: While moderate-intensity statin therapy is recommended for primary prevention, statins may not be utilized at a recommended intensity due to dose-dependent adverse events, especially in an Asian population. However, evidence supporting the use of low-intensity statins in primary prevention is limited., Objective: We sought to compare clinical outcomes between a low-intensity statin plus ezetimibe and a moderate-intensity statin for primary prevention., Methods: This population-based retrospective cohort study used the Korean nationwide claims database (2002-2019). We included adults without atherosclerotic cardiovascular diseases who received moderate-intensity statins or low-intensity statins plus ezetimibe. The primary outcome was a composite of all-cause mortality, myocardial infarction, and ischemic stroke. The safety outcomes were liver and muscle injuries and new-onset diabetes mellitus (DM). We used standardized inverse probability of treatment weighting (sIPTW) and propensity score matching (PSM)., Results: In the sIPTW model, 1717 and 36 683 patients used a low-intensity statin plus ezetimibe and a moderate-intensity statin, respectively. In the PSM model, each group included 1687 patients. Compared with moderate-intensity statin use, low-intensity statin plus ezetimibe use showed similar risks of the primary outcome (hazard ratio [HR] = 0.92, 95% CI = 0.81-1.12 in sIPTW and HR = 1.16, 95% CI = 0.87-1.56 in PSM model). Low-intensity statin plus ezetimibe use was associated with decreased risks of liver and muscle injuries (subHR [sHR] = 0.84, 95% CI = 0.74-0.96 and sHR = 0.87, 95% CI = 0.77-0.97 in sIPTW; sHR = 0.84, 95% CI = 0.72, 0.96 and sHR = 0.82, 95% CI = 0.72-0.94 in PSM model, respectively). For new-onset DM and hospitalization of liver and muscle injuries, no difference was observed., Conclusion and Relevance: Low-intensity statin plus ezetimibe may be an alternative to moderate-intensity statin for primary prevention. Our findings provide evidence on safety and efficacy of statin therapy in Asian population., Competing Interests: Declaration of Conflicting InterestsThe authors declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

This study aimed to verify, for the first time, the need for Good Pharmacy Practice (GPP) regulations as guidelines to provide pharmaceutical care services in community pharmacies in Korea. Statistical analyses were performed with demographic characteristics, institutional factors, and diversity factors of 3 pharmaceutical care services as independent variables and the favorability of GPP implementation as a dependent variable. In assessing the diversity of methods of providing pharmaceutical care services as an indicator of willingness to provide these services, this study understood such diversity as an innovative behavior that represents the efforts and willingness of pharmacists to provide better services. The results of descriptive statistics showed that most pharmacists in community pharmacy recognize that guidelines are necessary to provide better pharmaceutical care services. The statistical correlation analysis results confirmed that a greater need for guidelines was strongly related to higher GPP favorability. The institutional factors had the greatest influence on GPP favorability, rather than diversity factors of pharmaceutical care services, ultimately with the Korean perspectives to equate the GPP with the guidelines for pharmaceutical care services. Our study confirmed that it is a wish and a policy task of community pharmacists in Korea to enact GPP as soon as possible.

Introduction: As South Korea remains technically at war with the North, higher smoking prevalence in the military might adversely affect the South Korea's military power and contribute to lifetime smoking in men with mandatory military service. This study was to identify priorities among the anti-smoking strategies to improve the existing smoking cessation programs for the Korean military., Methods: The analytic hierarchy process model with a goal, decision criteria, and sub-criteria as well as candidate strategies, was developed following a literature search and expert group discussion. A survey for pairwise comparison was conducted to determine the priority of the (sub-)criteria and strategies by 14 experts. The Super-Decisions software was used to determine the priorities and to analyze their consistency ratios and sensitivities. The study was approved by the ethics committee of the Korea Ministry of Health and Welfare., Results: Eight candidate strategies were developed to improve the effectiveness of military anti-smoking interventions as follows: (1) development of outcome enhancement plans for smoking cessation programs for the military, (2) development of differentiated smoking cessation programs for specific groups, (3) building of community network for continuity and accessibility of anti-smoking project, (4) building of industry-academia-government networks for anti-smoking project, (5) improvement of the perception of and strengthen the reward for smoking cessation, (6) development of a training system for army clinicians for the delivery of smoking cessation services, (7) creation of a certification system for smoking cessation programs, and (8) development of an evaluation system of project performance for smoking cessation. Through the analytic hierarchy process survey, the military specificity and its sub-criterion of practicality were selected as the top concerns of decision criteria for the anti-smoking strategies among the decision criteria of outcome improvement, military specificity, publicness, and economic efficiency. The most important strategy was to improve the perception of and strengthen the reward for smoking cessation. This strategy was most focused on the creation of an anti-smoking environment and improvement of the effectiveness of the projects. The creation of a training system for army clinicians for the delivery of smoking cessation services ranked second., Conclusion: In conclusion, motivating smoking cessation and utilizing well-trained army clinicians were found to be the most important anti-smoking strategies for the Korean military. This study might provide valuable insights for policy makers to reduce tobacco use in the Korean military.