[Factors Affecting Nutrient Intake of Students after High School Graduation: Focusing on Changes in Diet and the Period of Solitary Living].

OBJECTIVES: In this study, we aim to establish supportive measures for sustaining a healthy diet in students and young adults after graduating from high school by examining possible factors leading to changes in their daily nutrient consumption. METHODS: A questionnaire survey was conducted among university, college, and vocational school students throughout the main island of Japan (total numbers of respondents with valid responses, 1,256) to evaluate their diets using a five-point scale. Two groups were selected based on the status of daily nutrient consumption. One group comprised 258 students who had maintained high nutrition scores (scored ≥ 4 points in all six primary food groups) since their third year in high school (maintained high-score group) and the other group comprised 250 students whose nutrition scores declined after high school (decreased-score group: scored high in the third year of high school but the scores decreased after admission to universities, colleges, and other institutes). By comparing these two groups, we investigated the possible factors affecting the decrease in nutrition scores. RESULTS: As the number of students in "the period of solitary living" and with the behavior of "skipping breakfast" increased, the proportion of students in the decreased-score group was found to increase. The eating behaviors that significantly differed between the students in the third year and those after graduating from high school were "skipping breakfast", "eating out", and "instant food intake" in the decreased-score group in both genders. CONCLUSION: Results of this study indicate that we must promote measures that address the factors affecting nutrition intake after high school graduation.

[Factors Related to Nutritional Intake in Students Attending Universities, Colleges, and Vocational Schools: Focus on Gender and Household Living Arrangement].

OBJECTIVES: The aim of this cross-sectional study of students was to analyze nutritional intake factors and their contribution to preventing noncommunicable diseases (NCDs) in youth. METHODS: This study was based on the results of the Eating Behavior and Health Awareness survey conducted among university, college, and vocational school students throughout the main island of Japan (1,256 valid responders). RESULTS: The results of the logistic regression analysis are given below. Variables with significant positive regression coefficients, in the order from higher to lower odds ratios, were as follows: "household living arrangement", "skipping breakfast", and "cooking techniques" were the variables shown in men; "household living arrangement", "instant food intake", "skipping breakfast", "eating out", "stages of change in healthy eating", were the variables shown in women. In contrast, the variable "body mass index (BMI)" exhibited a significant negative regression coefficient in women. Students with low BMI showed a higher probability of exhibiting high nutritional intake. CONCLUSION: The variables "household living arrangement" and "skipping breakfast" may be associated with nutritional imbalance in both genders. Future prospective studies on diet and lifestyle factors are needed to clarify this issue further.

Factors associated with the prognosis of elderly patients with advanced dementia who receive palliative care from geriatric health services facilities.

AIM: The aim of the present study is to identify the factors associated with the prognosis of advanced dementia patients who are newly admitted to a geriatric health services facility. METHODS: This retrospective cohort study used data that were obtained on admission in the care-assessment of long-term care facility patients. The 177 participants with advanced dementia were admitted to our facility between 2006 and 2013. The association between the factors in the care-assessment and the three-month-mortality rates were examined throughout the year. RESULTS: At each of the 3-month time points, the mortarity rates of the patients who had total dependence on oral eating or hypoalbuminemia (<3.5 g/dl by BCG method) were significantly higher in comparison to the patients who had neither of these factors. The mortality rates in the patients with a past history of pneumonia (within 3 months) were significantly associated with both factors. At each time point, the three-month-mortality rates showed a significant decrease in the following patients groups (in order): patients with both total dependence on oral eating and hypoalbuminemia, patients with dependence on oral eating or hypoalbuminemia, patients without these two factors. CONCLUSION: Our results indicate that the factors in the care-assessment. That were associated with the prognosis of patients with advanced dementia on admission may be total dependence on oral eating and hypoalbuminemia. Evaluating the combination of these two factors can be a simple and useful measure to identify advanced dementia patients with a high risk of death who receive palliative care in a geriatric health services facility.

Estimating the extent of subclinical arteriosclerosis of persons with prediabetes and diabetes mellitus among Japanese urban workers and their families: a cross-sectional study.

BACKGROUND: Diabetes mellitus (hereafter called diabetes) is considered to accelerate arteriosclerosis leading to coronary heart disease and stroke. Thus, it is important to quantitatively estimate the extent of subclinical arteriosclerosis. A new method called cardio-ankle vascular index (CAVI) is developed to reflect arterial stiffness independently from blood pressure at the time of measurement. Then, we examined if CAVI scores could discriminate the extent of arteriosclerosis between persons with prediabetes (or borderline diabetes) and with diabetes among Japanese urban workers and their families. METHODS: Subjects were 9881 men and 12033 women of company employees and their families who participated in cardiovascular disease screening in Japan. Persons having diabetes and prediabetes were defined based on the criteria set by American Diabetes Association. CAVI scores were measured by VaSera VS-1000. We applied the established age-sex specific cutoff points of CAVI scores above which were determined to be abnormally high or advanced level of arteriosclerosis. To examine the association of prediabetes and diabetes with CAVI scores, CAVI scores of screening participants were converted to a binary variable: 1 for less than cutoff points and 2 for equal or greater than cutoff points or abnormally high CAVI scores. Logistic regression method was used to examine the association of prediabetes and diabetes with CAVI scores after adjusting for major cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk factors. RESULTS: Prevalence of abnormally high CAVI scores was significantly higher after 40 years of age among persons with diabetes than either among persons with prediabetes or among normal persons in both genders. Significantly elevated odds ratios (ORs) of abnormally high CAVI scores appeared among persons with prediabetes: 1.29 (95 % confidence interval (CI), 1.11-1.48) for men and 1.14 (CI, 1.01-1.28) for women, and among persons with diabetes: 2.41 (CI, 1.97-2.95) for men and 2.52 (CI, 1.94-3.28) for women. CONCLUSIONS: The extent of subclinical arteriosclerosis (including arterial stiffness and atherosclerosis) was moderately enhanced among persons with prediabetes and was further advanced among persons with diabetes. Thus, it is important to introduce earlier interventions for changing lifestyle and diet of persons with prediabetes in order to prevent them from developing diabetes and further advancing arteriosclerosis.

Event rates of acute myocardial infarction and coronary deaths in Niigata and Nagaoka cities in Japan.

Mortality from coronary heart disease in Japan is the among lowest recorded in the industrialized nations; however, little is known about the rate of events including nonfatal cases. A survey of event registration and a review of death certificates was carried out to estimate event rates of acute myocardial infarction (AMI) and coronary deaths in the largest 2 cities of the Niigata prefecture where there are 480,720 residents aged between 15 and 65 years. The definitions for these cardiac events used for the WHO-MONICA project were: (1)'definite AMI', (2) 'possible AMI or coronary death' (not including unclassifiable fatal events), and (3) 'unclassifiable fatal events'. Age-adjusted rates for AMI and coronary deaths (per 100,000/year) according to the registration survey were 54.6 for men and 7.2 for women according to definition 1 and 41.9 for men, and 5.3 for women according to definition 2. When data from the death certificate review were taken into account for the estimation, these rates increased to 80.6 for men and 14.2 for women according to definition 1, and 50.0 for men and 9.0 for women according to definition 2. These estimated rates are considerably lower than those in other industrialized nations surveyed in the WHO-MONICA project, and these findings are consistent with those from other studies conducted in Japan.

Subacute effects of deep-sea water from the Japan Sea on blood examination values in mice.

OBJECTIVES: To clarify the characteristics of deep-sea water (DSW), we investigated the hematological, immunological and biochemical effects of DSW, specifically the so-called Japan Sea Proper Water (JSPW), samples of which we collected from the Japan Sea at a depth of about 300 meters. METHODS: Five groups of five mice each were orally administered,ad libitum for 12 weeks, one of the following: 1.2% DSW, 12% DSW, 1.2% surface-sea water (SSW), 12% SSW, or purified water (control) RESULTS: Among these groups, no significant differences were observed in the average reduction of water intake, food consumption or body weight. The mean corpuscular volume, however, was significantly lower (p<0.05) in the 1.2% DSW group than in the control group. Moreover, serum immunoglobulin G and A values were significantly higher (p<0.05) in the 12% DSW and the 12% SSW groups, respectively, compared with the control group. In addition, the serum glucose value in the 12% DSW group was significantly higher (p<0.05) than in the control group CONCLUSIONS: The findings of the present study suggested the presence of some toxic components in DSW. Before a final answer is reached about whether DSW, and specifically JSPW, is bad for human health, the pathophysiology of findings such as the decreased mean corpuscular volume, the higher immunoglobulin G value and the higher glucose value should be investigated.