[Questionnaire survey of air extruded jelly dosage form (I) - oral condition of elder patients and applicability of air extruded jelly formulation - ].

Elderly patients tend to have troubles with oral conditions such as the impairment of deglutition capability (difficulty in swallowing), in addition to a decline in physical performance. An air extruded jelly formulation (AEJF) has been developed as a new formulation consisting of jelly and clean air under increased pressure. As jelly is discharged smoothly by pushing the air portion, elderly patients are able to easily take jelly from the package. In this study, survey questionnaires after a patient's trial of AEJF were conducted to characterize the intra-oral condition and reveal the applicability of AEJF in elderly patients. The subjects were 108 patients (ranging in age from 50 to 79) with chronic diseases who take some oral medicine regularly. A questionnaire on the oral state and compliance level was conducted before the trial of AEJF. The ratios of subjects with deglutition impairment and dryness of the mouth were 29.7% and 36.1%, respectively. Non-compliance was observed in 31.5% of the subjects. After the trial using AEJF, 94.5% of subjects felt that AEJF was easy to swallow. The ratio of the patients expecting AEJF to be an oral formulation was 89.3%, and those with an intention of daily use was 83.4%. A majority of the subjects, 63.9%, intended to switch their present formulations to AEJF. Especially, a high ratio was found among subjects who presently take a powder formulation or more than 5 kinds of medicines daily. Based on these results, AEJF is expected to improve the adherence of elderly patients to their medicine dosage regimens, and to improve compliance among those with oral troubles or some other hindrance to compliance.