Application of the child-to-child strategy to change health awareness and behavior among school children and community dwellers in Sri Lanka / 国際保健医療

<B>Introduction</B><br>Recently, the increasing prevalence of chronic and lifestyle-related diseases has become the most crucial global health issue, even in low- and middle-income countries. However, current health systems are often unable to address the large burden of such diseases because of their poor capacity. In Sri Lanka, a country facing such issues, we implemented a school initiative project, the effect of which expanded beyond the school to the student's family as well as the local community. The project was aimed at prevention of chronic and lifestyle-related diseases among adults through school children's activities.<br><B>Activities</B><br>Major interventions such as workshops and regular publication of newsletters including the results of the workshops were implemented at four selected primary and secondary schools in the Southern Province of Sri Lanka. The newsletters the children brought home facilitated their communication with the parents regarding health issues. All the schools conducted health camps, which children planned and managed themselves, and incentive funds were offered to support the children's activities.<br><B>Results</B><br>Through discussion and learning at the workshops, children's self-confidence and self-reliance might be enhanced, particularly in regard to developing their health literacy. The health camps and incentive funds helped promote children's autonomy and capability. The attendance rate of the students at the four schools has increased since the inception of the project, while a questionnaire survey showed that the proportion of parents who smoked has decreased.<br><B>Conclusion</B><br>The trial suggested that school children have the potential not only to improve their own health but also to help their parents and the broader community adopt a healthier lifestyle. Application of the child-to-child strategy may be useful to deal with chronic and lifestyle-related diseases of adulthood as it expands to the child-to-parents and the child-to-community approach.

Drinking in the Context of Health-Sustaining Habits / 가정의학회지

The comprehensive medical care delivered by family physicians should involve education and practice of health-sustaining habits such as diet, exercise, relaxation etc. as well as drug prescription. Among those, problem drinking is one of the most frequent issues encountered in health promoting sessions. However they are not competent to cover the realm of counseling in problem drinking in a continuous way. The drinking problems go up, unnoticed and uninhibited, to the self-destructive stages by the process of denial and avoidance on the part of patient as well as therapists. The explanation by which moderate drinking can't be easily embedded into healthy life styles and the practical strategies for dealing with problem drinkers and alcohol dependents will be presented in the context of health-sustaining habits.

Knowledge Framework aiming at Disease Prevention through Logical Translation of the Balneology to the Modern Medicine / 日本温泉気候物理医学会雑誌

The objective of this paper is to define the basis for the translational research and its knowledge framework in balneology aiming to approach the disease prevention. As a method to attain this objective, we advocate the knowledge framework that can bridge gene ontology (GO), balneologic ontology (BO), and clinical ontology (CO) virtually at a client site with three sided basic concepts as (1) the logically extended anatomical index from micro to macro, (2) the knowledge representation based on feature described logical conceptual unit, and (3) the EBM (Evidence Based Medicine) based quality evaluation of knowledge. As an result, the scheme and the prototype of the knowledge framework for the basic balneology was built. The logically extended anatomically hierarchical index could offer the seamless and logical continuity from genome to human/environment. The EBM based quality assessment enhanced the reliability of knowledge, and the knowledge representation based on the logical conceptual unit approach offered the unification of the different grain size knowledge.

In Silico Knowledge Structure for Bridging Genome Medical Science and Balneology / 日本温泉気候物理医学会雑誌

In post-genome era, the greatest challenge of post-genome research is how we can apply genomic outcome to practical field like clinical medicine through discovering effective findings from its complex and meta-molecular network. From the viewpoint of reducing health care cost, preventive medicine that can avoid diseases should be essential target. Balneology that contains preventive medicine in part through unspecified bio-modulation effect should be a principal field of genome science based application. Balneology has expectations to be applied to practical clinical field or health promotion through translational research to modern medicine or health science. This translational research needs establishment of bridging knowledge and its bi-directional migration as the essence of translation. Integration of in silico knowledge among balneology, modern medicine, and genomic science is the fundamental basis of this translation. Single knowledge architecture that has anatomically hierarchical structure, logical conceptual unit and its supportive evidences makes integration logically seamless and establishes smooth translation. This paper reports knowledge architecture in balneologic translational research and its prototype.