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Aim: The Japanese government defined integrative/integrated medicine (IM) as "medical practice led by physicians, cooperating with other specialists." Therefore, the basics of comprehensive medical education should be provided in medical universities. We investigated the situation of IM with special reference to Kampo medicines in the national core curricula, national examination standards and the syllabuses for lectures published on the universities' websites. Methods: In the published documents regarding the core curriculum, national examination standards and syllabuses in the academic year 2018, we analyzed whether they include IM. Results: Four kinds of universities offered "Kampo medicine" (Japanese traditional herbal medicine) as their core curriculum. Pharmaceutical universities included "health food", and nursing universities included "alternative medicine". National examination standards for dentists and pharmacists included Kampo medicine, but those for doctors and nurses did not. In the syllabuses of medical universities, 85% included Kampo medicine, but the percentage for IMs was low. The situation was similar in dental universities. All pharmaceutical universities included Kampo medicines and health foods; other IMs were low. The number for all IMs in nursing universities was lower than half. Conclusion: Based on the definition of IM in this paper, we investigated the actual situation of IM education including Kampo in all universities. There were considerable differences between all the faculties. For medical doctor, the Kampo medicines listed in the model core curriculum that are not included in the national examination standard should be rectified. For pharmacists, it is important to deepen the educational contents in this field. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract Background Research on health-education programs requires longitudinal data. Loss to follow-up can lead to imprecision and bias, and complete loss to follow-up is particularly damaging. If that loss is predictable, then efforts to prevent it can be focused on those program participants who are at the highest risk. We identified predictors of complete loss to follow-up in a longitudinal cohort study. Methods Data were collected over 1 year in a study of adults with chronic illnesses who were in a program to learn self-management skills. Following baseline measurements, the program had one group-discussion session each week for six weeks. Follow-up questionnaires were sent 3, 6, and 12 months after the baseline measurement. A person was classified as completely lost to follow-up if none of those three follow-up questionnaires had been returned by two months after the last one was sent. We tested two hypotheses: that complete loss to follow-up was directly associated with the number of absences from the program sessions, and that it was less common among people who had had face-to-face contact with one of the researchers. We also tested predictors of data loss identified previously and examined associations with specific diagnoses. Using the unpaired t-test, the U test, Fisher's exact test, and logistic regression, we identified good predictors of complete loss to follow-up. Results The prevalence of complete loss to follow-up was 12.2% (50/409). Complete loss to follow-up was directly related to the number of absences (odds ratio; 95% confidence interval: 1.78; 1.49-2.12), and it was inversely related to age (0.97; 0.95-0.99). Complete loss to follow-up was less common among people who had met one of the researchers (0.51; 0.28-0.95) and among those with connective tissue disease (0.29; 0.09-0.98). For the multivariate logistic model the area under the ROC curve was 0.77. Conclusions Complete loss to follow-up after this health-education program can be predicted to some extent from data that are easy to collect (age, number of absences, and diagnosis). Also, face-to-face contact with a researcher deserves further study as a way of increasing participation in follow-up, and health-education programs should include it.