Résumé
A survey was conducted on 117 agricultural cooperatives and 121 city, town and village offices in Nagano Prefecture to find out how they provide health care to the population. The following is a summary of the findigs of the questionnaire survey based on interviews.<BR>1. Collaboration between agricultural co-ops and local public offices in health control activities has become closer. Nearly half of the agricultural co-ops plan and implement health screening programs jointly with city, town and village authorities. One of the favorable effects of the joint undertaking manifests itself in the form of improvement in the ratio of participants to the total populace. The average percentage of participation in the joint programs comes at 48.8% as against the prefectural average of some 22%. Moreover, the joint efforts bring about the desired effect on the implementation of after-screening guidance and other health promotion programs.<BR>2. Of local health leaders, 87.2% said that they keep in contact with each other. Those who meet once in every one to three months account for 24.8% of the total. In the areas where health leaders have liaison meetings regularly, it is noted that there is close cooperation between medical insitutions and various health-related organizations, resulting in a marked improvement in the percentage of participation in health screenings. It is also noted that there is overall improvement in the attitude toward health control.<BR>3. As regards the participation of inhabitants in health control activities, the women's, the young men's and the producers' associations have representatives to the health control promotion council of the agricultural cooperative in each region. Of the three associations, the women's association is the most enthusiastic with the participation ratio of 55.4%. Meanwhile, 67.8% of the agricultural co-ops send their representatives to the health promotion council of each municipal body. More representatives of agricultural co-ops and inhabitants should take part in the council in the interest of people's well-being.
Résumé
In view of the present situation of agriculture in which housewives have to handlethe bulk of farm work, a study was made on the health conditions of women engaged in farming in comparison with those of non-farmers.<BR>The study covered a total of 28, 600 females, aged from 40 to 59, who received masshealth screenings conducted between 1978 and 1980 on rural inhabitants in Nagano Prefecture as part of the outreach program by the health service corps of our hospital.<BR>All the examinees live in areas whose principal crops are rice, vegetables and/or fruits.<BR>The data were arranged according to seasons based on the dates of health examination in order to clarify the seasonal variations of morbidity rates and other indices of health.<BR>Another investigation was made into seasonal changes in the length of time used byhousewives in farming, domestic chores, rest and so on with a view to studying correlation between the mode of living and health conditions.<BR>To sum up, our findings are as fllows:<BR>(1) Seasonal variations in the results of various laboratory tests and morbidity rates were notable, depending on the amount of farm work, dietary habits, coldness and the height above sea level.<BR>(2) During summer months, the incidence of anemia was exceedingly high, obesity rates plummeted, and serum cholinesterase values dropped sharply among housewives who are engaged in farm work, compared with those who are not.<BR>(3) In summer, farm housewives worked long hours in the fields, slept less and rested less. They had not enough time to attend to household duties.