Perspectives of Japanese elders and their healthcare providers on use of wearable technology to monitor their health at home: A qualitative exploration.

BACKGROUND: With 24 million Japanese elderly aging at home, the challenges of managing chronic conditions are significant. As many Japanese elders manage multiple chronic conditions, investigating the usefulness of wearable health devices for this population is warranted. AIM: The purpose of this qualitative study, using grounded theory, was to explore the perspectives of Japanese elders, their caretakers, and their healthcare providers on the use of technology and wearable devices to monitor health conditions and keep Japanese elders safe at home. METHODS: In conducting this study, a community advisory board was first established to guide the research design; six focus groups and two one-on-one interviews were conducted, with a total of 21 participants. RESULTS: Four major themes emerged from the analysis: 1) Current Status of Health Issues Experienced by Japanese Elders and Ways of Being Monitored; 2) Current Use of Monitoring Technology and Curiosity about Use of the Latest Digital Technology to Keep Elderly Healthy at Home; 3) Perceived Advantages of Wearing Sensor Technology; and 4) Perceived Disadvantages of Wearing Technology. Many of the elderly participants were interested in using monitoring devices at home, particularly if not complicated. Healthcare workers found monitoring technologies particularly useful during the isolation of the COVID-19 pandemic. Elderly participants felt cost and technical issues could be barriers to using monitoring devices. CONCLUSION: While there are challenges to utilizing monitoring devices, the potential to aid the aging population of Japan justifies further investigation into the effectiveness of these devices. This study was not registered with a research trial registry.

[Relationship between work engagement and organizational justice among hospital nurses].

Objective　This study aimed to clarify the relationship between organizational justice and work engagement among nurses.Methods　Japanese nurses working in a medium-sized hospital in the Tokyo metropolitan area were surveyed using a self-administered questionnaire. We conducted a stepwise multiple regression analysis with scores from the Japanese version of the Utrecht Work Engagement Scale (UWES-J) as the dependent variable and scores from the Japanese version of the Organizational Justice Scale (OJS-J), age, sex, position, employment status, shift work, self-efficacy, social support, work control, and work quantitative load as the independent variables. Additionally, a stepwise multiple regression analysis was conducted for each OJS-J subscale score.Results　The questionnaire was distributed to 270 nurses, of whom 219 (83.0% response rate) provided valid responses. With the UWES-J as the dependent variable, Model 1 adjusted only for age and sex; Model 2 adjusted for position, employment status, shift work, and self-efficacy score; and Model 3 adjusted for the social support, work control, and work quantitative load scores. Model 2 and Model 3 showed a significant association to the positive direction between UWES-J and OJS-J (Model 3: ß=0.202, P<0.01, R2=0.363). Furthermore, when the same analysis was conducted for each OJS-J subscale score, a significant association was found between procedural justice scores and the UWES-J (Model 3: ß=0.165, P<0.05, R2=0.383). Neither model found a significant difference between distributional equity scores and information equity scores.Conclusion　The results of this study examining the relationship between work engagement and organizational justice among hospital nurses showed that work engagement was associated with organizational justice, especially procedural justice. These results suggest that maintaining and improving organizational justice is important for improving nurses' work engagement.

Long-term epidemiologic longitudinal study on the effect of vaccines on public inoculation.

Public vaccination policies in Japan for several viruses have achieved favorable results. To accurately evaluate their overall effectiveness, we conducted a 45- year epidemiological survey of measles, varicella and mumps cases at our clinic. The number of patients with measles was found to be significantly decreased with the single-dose vaccination provided at public expense. However, we also witnessed an increasing trend of infection at a later age. The vaccination rates for varicella and mumps were relatively low because of their optional availability in Japan, and thus they cannot be considered to confer public protection. Although localized to a particular region, our results show that it is important to increase the immunization rate of vaccines for large-scale protection against viral infections through public programs.