Anxiety among Japanese nursing researchers before and after dispatch for COVID-19 pandemic support: Effects of anxiety-enhancing and buffering factors.

AIM: We investigated the levels of anxiety and the factors influencing it among Japanese nursing researchers before and after engaging in dispatch support activities during the COVID-19 pandemic. This study also tested the relationships between pre- and post-relief anxiety and their enhancing and buffering factors. METHODS: A web-based survey was conducted with 9832 members from the Japan Academy of Nursing Science, covering 15 items related to participant attributes such as age and disaster relief qualifications, factors affecting anxiety about support activities such as the content and duration of one activity, and the level of anxiety before and after activities. After performing multiple regression analyses on the effects of the attributes and the factors influencing anxiety before and after support activities, path analysis was conducted on the adopted independent variables to examine their influence on anxiety before and after support activities. RESULTS: Of the 886 participants, 82.3% were affiliated with educational institutions and 94.8% had no qualifications in disaster relief. Most of the support involved vaccination and activities at health centers. The relationship between pre- and post-relief activities and factors influencing anxiety constituted a high goodness-of-fit, with health center assistance being both a direct and indirect reinforcer of post-relief anxiety. CONCLUSIONS: Participants expressed anxiety enhanced by activities at the health center both before and after support activities in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. Intervention research should examine anxiety-buffering and -enhancing factors, and a support system to respond to rapidly increasing medical needs is necessary.

Comparison of Japanese and Scottish Mother-Infant Intersubjectivity: Resonance of Timing, Anticipation, and Empathy During Feeding.

Feeding involves communication between mothers and infants and requires precise synchrony in a special triadic relationship with the food. It is deeply related to their intersubjectivity. This study compared the development of mother-infant intersubjectivity through interactional synchrony in feeding between 11 Japanese and 10 Scottish mother-infant dyads, observed at 6 and 9 months by video. Japanese mothers were more deliberate in feeding at an earlier age, whereas Scottish mothers were significantly more coercive than Japanese mothers at an earlier age. Japanese mothers brought the spoon to infants with a pause to adjust the timing of insertion to match their infants' readiness, whereas this pause was not observed in Scottish mothers. Isomorphic mouth opening between mothers and infants was observed. This empathic maternal display is an important element of intersubjectivity in infant feeding that differed between Scottish and Japanese mothers. Scottish mothers' mouth opening always followed their infants' mouth opening, but about half of Japanese mothers preceded their infants. Further, the mouths of Scottish infants and mothers opened almost at the same time as spoon insertion. In contrast, Japanese mothers' mouth opening did not co-occur with the insertion but was close to spoon arrival, a subtle but important difference that allows for greater infant autonomy. The time structure of Scottish mother-infant interactions was simpler and more predictable at 9 months than in Japan, where the structure was more variable, likely due to a stronger regulation by Scottish mothers. In conclusion, Scottish mother-infant intersubjectivity is characterized as more maternally reactive and mother-centered, whereas Japanese mother-infant intersubjectivity is characterized as more maternally empathetic and infant-centered. Cultural differences in intersubjectivity during feeding between Japan and Scotland are further discussed in relation to triadic relationships and parenting styles.

Embodied intersubjective engagement in mother-infant tactile communication: a cross-cultural study of Japanese and Scottish mother-infant behaviors during infant pick-up.

This study examines the early development of cultural differences in a simple, embodied, and intersubjective engagement between mothers putting down, picking up, and carrying their infants between Japan and Scotland. Eleven Japanese and ten Scottish mothers with their 6- and then 9-month-old infants participated. Video and motion analyses were employed to measure motor patterns of the mothers' approach to their infants, as well as their infants' collaborative responses during put-down, pick-up, and carry phases. Japanese and Scottish mothers approached their infants with different styles and their infants responded differently to the short duration of separation during the trial. A greeting-like behavior of the arms and hands was prevalent in the Scottish mothers' approach, but not in the Japanese mothers' approach. Japanese mothers typically kneeled before making the final reach to pick-up their children, giving a closer, apparently gentler final approach of the torso than Scottish mothers, who bent at the waist with larger movements of the torso. Measures of the gap closure between the mothers' hands to their infants' heads revealed variably longer duration and distance gap closures with greater velocity by the Scottish mothers than by the Japanese mothers. Further, the sequence of Japanese mothers' body actions on approach, contact, pick-up, and hold was more coordinated at 6 months than at 9 months. Scottish mothers were generally more variable on approach. Measures of infant participation and expressivity indicate more active participation in the negotiation during the separation and pick-up phases by Scottish infants. Thus, this paper demonstrates a culturally different onset of development of joint attention in pick-up. These differences reflect cultures of everyday interaction.

Characteristics of asthma attack with long-term management for bronchial asthma.

BACKGROUND: There have been no reports on the evaluation of the usefulness of long-term asthma management based on the Japanese Pediatric Guideline for the Treatment and Management of Bronchial Asthma 2005 (JPGL 2005). METHODS: The purpose of the present study was to retrospectively investigate the records of 350 patients admitted to Yamaguchi University Hospital who had asthma attacks from January 2006 to June 2008. There were 149 patients who were treated for more than 3 months in accordance with the guideline (long-term management group) and 201 who were not (non-long-term management group). The patients were divided into three age groups: 100 infants, 159 toddlers, and 91 schoolchildren. RESULTS: The onset age of asthma in the long-term management group was earlier than that in the non-long-term management group in toddlers and schoolchildren. The white blood cell counts and C-reactive protein levels were higher in the non-long-term management group in schoolchildren, suggesting the complication of some infections. The severity of asthma in the long-term management group was greater than that in the non-long-term management group among all three age groups. There were no significant differences, however, in the severity of asthma attack at admission between the long-term and non-long-term management groups in the three age groups. CONCLUSION: Patients who had severe asthma tended to be treated with long-term management, which suggests that long-term asthma management according to JPGL 2005 may reduce the severity of asthma attack at that admission, because the severity of asthma in patients undergoing long-term management correlates with the severity of asthma attack.