Disclosure of Spousal Death to Patients with Dementia: Attitude and Actual Behavior of Care Managers.

As the number of dementia patients increases, there is a need to protect patients' right to know. However, in reality, there are cases in Japan where spouses' deaths are concealed from patients. We conducted a questionnaire survey of care managers (CMs) to obtain their attitude and actual behavior regarding the disclosure of a spouse's death to patients with dementia.

Factors of influenza vaccine inoculation and non-inoculation behavior of community-dwelling residents in Japan: Suggestions for vaccine policy and public health ethics after COVID-19.

The aim of this study is to provide basic information that contributes to vaccine inoculation policy after COVID-19. We used the secondary data of the influenza vaccine inoculation behavior survey for community-dwelling adults conducted in 2011, before the COVID-19 pandemic, but after the 2009 novel influenza A (H1N1) pdm 09 pandemic. All factors such as socio-demographic characteristics, health-related behaviors, family environment, physical and social environment, and area of residence were adjusted, and factors related to vaccine inoculation behavior were analyzed.

Facts and Recommendations regarding When Medical Institutions Report Potential Abuse to Child Guidance Centers: A Cross-Sectional Study.

Background: Medical institutions are required to report suspected cases of child abuse to administrative agencies, such as child guidance centers in Japan. It is left to the discretion of the medical institutions whether to notify the family of the child or the center. However, it is unclear what kinds of measures are being taken to ensure a robust policy of notification versus non-notification and how notifying the family will affect the child.

An Exploratory Study on Information Manipulation by Doctors: Awareness, Actual State, and Ethical Tolerance.

(1) Background: To what extent is information manipulation by doctors acceptable? To answer this question, we conducted an exploratory study aimed at obtaining basic data on descriptive ethics for considering this issue. (2) Methods: A self-administered questionnaire survey was conducted on a large sample ( = 3305) of doctors. The participants were queried on (1) whether they consider that information manipulation is necessary (awareness), (2) whether they have actually manipulated information (actual state), and (3) their ethical tolerance.

A Cross-Sectional Study of Attitudes toward Willingness to Use Enhancement Technologies: Implications for Technology Regulation and Ethics.

Neuroenhancement is rapidly re-emerging as a research topic because of the development of minimally invasive brain intervention technologies, including neurofeedback. However, public attitude toward enhancement technologies remains relatively unexplored. To fill this gap in the literature, we conducted an online survey of 1258 people in Japan who were presented with four scenarios depicting minimally and highly invasive enhancement interventions.

Characterizing patients issued DNR orders who are ultimately discharged alive: a retrospective observational study in Japan.

Background: The present study aimed to characterize factors associated with patients issued DNR orders during hospitalization who are discharged alive without any instruction orders by physicians regarding end-of-life treatment, with a focus on the timing of DNR order issuance.

Methods: In total, 2997 DNR cases from all 61,037 patients aged ≥20 years admitted to a representative general hospital in Tokyo were extracted and divided into two groups by patient hospital release status (discharged alive/deceased). Study items included age, sex, disease type (non-cancer/cancer), hospital department (internal medicine/others), timing of DNR order issuance, implementation (or not) of life-sustaining treatment (LST) or the presence of any restrictions on LST and hospital length of stay.

How do health behaviours relate to dietary practice patterns among Japanese adults?

Background And Objectives: To identify dietary practice patterns for Japanese adults and investigate the links between health behaviours and these patterns.

Methods And Study Design: A random sample, stratified according to area, sex, and age, of 4570 adults aged 20-80 years completed a survey conducted in 2011 in a city, in Yamagata Prefecture, Northeast Japan.

Results: Cluster analysis of 16 dietary practice items revealed four patterns labelled as: low fat, sugar, or salt; emphasis on nutrition; regular breakfast and staples; and meals not snacks.

Clustering patterns of obesity-related multiple lifestyle behaviours and their associations with overweight and family environments: a cross-sectional study in Japanese preschool children.

Objectives: The purpose of this study is (1) to identify obesity-related lifestyle behaviour patterns of diet, physical activity, sedentary and sleep behaviours in preschool children, (2) to examine the association between identified behaviour clusters and overweight/obesity and (3) to investigate differences in children's family environments according to clusters.

Design Setting And Participants: A cross-sectional study on 2114 preschool children aged 3-6 years who attended childcare facilities (24 nursery schools and 10 kindergartens) in Tsuruoka city, Japan in April 2003 was conducted.

Main Outcome Measures: Children's principal caregivers completed a questionnaire on children's lifestyle behaviours (dinner timing, outside playtime, screen time and night-time sleep duration), family environment (family members, maternal employment, mealtime regularity and parents' habitual exercise and screen time) and measurements of weight and height.

Combined eating behaviors and overweight: Eating quickly, late evening meals, and skipping breakfast.

Objective: Various eating behaviors have been linked with body weight management. However, combined effects of major eating behaviors are not fully understood. This study aimed to clarify the association of the combination of eating quickly (EQ), late evening meals (LEM), and skipping breakfast (SB) with being overweight.

Association between changes in 12 lifestyle behaviors and the development of metabolic syndrome during 1 year among workers in the Tokyo metropolitan area.

Background: Practicing healthy lifestyle behaviors is a means to prevent metabolic syndrome (MetS), but the effect of changes of various behaviors over a short period is not fully understood. The purpose of this study was to elucidate the influence of changes in 12 behaviors on the development of MetS during 1 year.

Methods And Results: Of 10,442 workers who received a periodic health checkup in a health center in Tokyo in 2008, 3,137 workers aged 30-69, without MetS, who received another health checkup in 2009 were analyzed.

Features of perceived neighborhood environment associated with daily walking time or habitual exercise: differences across gender, age, and employment status in a community-dwelling population of Japan.

Objective: Perceived neighborhood environment (NE) is considered a determinant of daily physical activity (PA). However, evidence concerning differences among types of PA, gender, and age is limited. The study purpose was to clarify the association between NE and walking time (WT) or habitual exercise (HE) across gender, age, and employment status in a community-dwelling population of Japan.

Distinct impact of education and income on habitual exercise: a cross-sectional analysis in a rural city in Japan.

Education and income are important socioeconomic indicators that reflect different aspects of social hierarchy. However, only a few studies have explicitly examined how different the relationship between education and health behaviour is from that between income and health behaviour. According to the human capital theory of health investment, education would reflect knowledge assets that allow an efficient investment in health, while income would relate to the value of healthy days and/or the time cost of health investment.

BMI specific waist circumference for detecting clusters of cardiovascular risk factors in a Japanese population.

Aim: The purpose of the study was to determine the sensitive cutoff values of waist circumference (WC) in relation to the body mass index (BMI) for detecting the clustering of cardiovascular risk factors (CCRF) in Japanese men and women.

Methods: The study population included 2,476 male and female residents who participated in a ward health examination in Tokyo, Japan. The CCRF were defined according to the Japanese Committee of the Criteria for Metabolic Syndrome.

Association between daily physical activity and neighborhood environments.

Objective: Previous studies on the association between physical activity (PA) and neighborhood environments (NE) focused on either objectively measuring the NE or the residents' perception of NE. Here, we investigate which actual or perceived NE is associated with residents' PA in Japan.

Methods: Two regions with an objectively assessed high and low residential density, land use mix-diversity, and street connectivity, respectively, were identified in one city.

Changes in food intake patterns associated with body weight loss during a 12-week health promotion program and a 9-month follow-up period in a Japanese population.

Recently, food intake pattern analysis associated with body weight has been conducted instead of traditional dietary analysis focusing on a single nutrient or food group, but there have been few studies examining the association between change in food intake patterns and body weight loss. In this study, short- and long-term relationships between changes in food intake patterns and body weight loss were examined. Subjects were 506 overweight/obese men and women who participated in a 12-week health promotion program and a follow-up check 9 months later.

Effective cut-off values of waist circumference to detect the clustering of cardiovascular risk factors of metabolic syndrome in Japanese men and women.

The purpose of this study was to determine effective cut-off values of waist circumference (WC) to detect the clustering of cardiovascular risk factors (CCRF) in a Japanese population. The subjects were 2,476 men and women who participated in a health examination in Tokyo. The CCRF was defined according to the International Diabetes Federation (IDF) and the Japanese Committee of the Criteria for Metabolic Syndrome (JCCMS).

Correlation between food intake change patterns and body weight loss in middle-aged women in Japan.

The patterns of food intake change which are effective for weight loss have not been clearly researched yet. The objective of this study was to examine the correlation between food intake change patterns and body weight loss. One hundred and two overweight women completed a 2-day dietary record before and after a 12-week weight-reduction program, and 28 food groups were classified.

Association between residents' perception of the neighborhood's environments and walking time in objectively different regions.

Objective: The purpose of this study is to delineate the association between residents' perception of the neighborhood's environments and walking time in objectively different regions in Japan.

Methods: Two regions were selected as high and low walkable regions on the basis of differences in their residential density, mixed land use and street connectivity. The subjects in this study were participants in a health promotion program focused on walking sponsored by local governments.

Phylogenetic analysis of Lactococcus lactis subspecies based on decoding the sequence of the pepT tripeptidase gene, the pepV dipeptidase gene and 16S rRNA.

Tripeptidase (PepT) and dipeptidase (PepV), the enzymes located in the final stage of the intracellular proteolytic system, were demonstrated to be distributed widely in lactic acid bacteria, especially in lactococci. Both the tripeptidase genes (pepT) and dipeptidase genes (pepV) of 15 lactococcal strains consisting of the type and domestic strains were cloned and sequenced using normal and TAIL PCR methods. Amino acid sequences of these enzymes were highly conserved among strains.

Measuring relative work values for home care nursing services in Japan.

Background: Japan's system of Home Visit Nursing Care Stations (Station) began in 1991. To maintain the quality of services in home health nursing provided by Stations, reimbursement needs to account not only for the number of home visits, but also for the time and intensity of nursing services.

Objectives: This study aimed primarily to investigate the total work value and the three dimensions (time, mental effort, and physical effort) of actual visiting nursing services for the aged, and to quantify the contribution made by the three dimensions of nursing services to total work.

Attention disorders in schizophrenia.

In order to clarify the feature of attention disorders in schizophrenia, two tasks (X and AX) of the Continuous Performance Test (CPT) were given to 36 schizophrenic patients and 25 healthy controls. The schizophrenic patients performed considerably less well than normal controls. Performances were expressed in indices such as omission and commission errors, reaction time and discriminability.