The physical status and serum mineral concentrations for people aged 10 to 68 years living in an agricultural southern region of Nepal were determined. Systolic (SBP) and diastolic blood pressure (DBP) for both sexes in the 10−14 year age group were low (p<0.05, vs the other age groups) and those for the over 50−year−olds tended to be higher than the other age groups. The mean values of total proteins (TP) (8.6±0.5 g/dl for males and 8.7±0.6 g/dl for females) were high due to an increase of globulin (3.9±0.4 g/dl for males and 4.1±0.5 g/dl for females). More than three−fourths of the subjects of both sexes showed calcium (Ca) levels of 9.0−11.2 mg/dl and about 65% of them showed potassium (K) Ievels of 4.8−5.4 mEq/l. A significant positive correlation between DBP and serum K was observed (p<0.05). Serum inorganic phosphorus (IP) correlated with age (p<0.001) and body mass index (BMI) (p<0.001). The serum Ca levels correlated with TP (r=0.31, p<0.001), albumin (Alb) (r=0.50, p<0.001), IP (r=0.31, p<0.001), K (r=0.32, p<0.001) and chlorine (Cl)(r=−0.37, p<0.001). Cl was associated with TP (r=−0.21, p<0.05), Alb (r=−0.36, p<0.001) and IP (r= −0.21, p<0.05). These results suggested that Ca intake for the subjects seemed to be insufficient although their serum Ca level was within normal.

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The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between physical fitness and coronary risk factor profiles in Japanese women. The subjects were 1, 483 women (ages 30 to 69) who participated in a practical health promotion program. After medical examination, physical fitness was evaluated by conducting a symptom limited maximal exercise test by ergometer to measure maximum oxygen uptake (peakVO₂) with an expired gas analyzer. The subjects were classified into 3 groups (high fitness, moderate fitness, and low fitness) according to age and physical fitness level. The results showed that the subjects in higher fitness groups had lower levels in: body mass index (BMI), percentage of body fat, waist−hip ratio, resting blood pressure, and atherogenic index, and higher HDL−cholesterol compared to those in lower fitness group. Even after adjustment for the effects of age and BMI, the subjects in the higher fitness groups had better coronary risk factor profiles. These results suggest that among Japanese women a high level of physical fitness is related to favorable coronary risk factor profiles.

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The acute effect of a single−dose of caffeine on the P300 event−related brain potential (ERP) was assessed in a study using a repeatedly presented auditory oddball button−press task. A dose (5mg/kg body−weight) of either caffeine or placebo lactose, dissolved in a cup of decaffeinated coffee, was administered double−blindly to coffee drinkers who had abstained from coffee for 24hrs, with the presentation order of the sessions counterbalanced and separated by 2−4 weeks. The caffeine−treatment condition demonstrated a smaller P300 amplitude and a shorter latency overall than the placebo treatment condition. The mean P300 amplitude value difference (caffeine minus placebo) increased with the successive trial blocks. Caffeine ingestion appears to yield a lower resource−consumption and a net increase in allocating attention resources for task performance across repeated measurements.

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This study examined the difference in dietary intake between middle−aged and elderly Japanese and Chinese. Volunteers aged 50∼79 living in two cities in both Japan and China were recruited in local community service centers and were asked to complete a 3−day diet recording. The final results were based on 356 subjects (166 Chinese and 190 Japanese). In men, the Japanese subjects significantly consumed more energy, with a large proportion of the energy coming from carbohydrates, dietary fiber, vitamin A, vitamin B₂, vitamin C and they consumed less iron, and a lower proportion of energy from protein and fat than in the Chinese subjects. In women, the Japanese subjects had significantly higher intakes of energy, the proportion of energy from carbohydrates, dietary fiber, calcium, vitamin A, vitamin B₁, vitamin B₂, vitamin C and they consumed less iron, with the proportion of energy from protein and from fat in comparison with the Chinese women. Fat intake provided more than 29% of the total dietary energy in Chinese subjects. Daily intake of food items was significantly greater in the Japanese participants, both men and women (18.54±2.85, 20.11±2.40, respectively), than in the Chinese subjects (14.11±3.62, 15.51±4.15, respectively) (p<0.01 by Mann Whitney U−test). The present study suggests that the middle−aged and elderly Chinese subjects should increase their variety of foods consumed while decreasing their consumption of high−fat foods. For the Japanese subjects, the higher intake of total calories among the woman should also be noted.

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The purpose of this study was to investigate the factorial structure of life satisfaction in agricultural workers. One hundred and sixty−five (87 males and 78 females) agricultural workers mainly engaged in plastic greenhouse cultivation in southern Japan, ranging in age from 19 to 72 years (mean = 44.3 years), completed a questionnaire. Scores of life satisfaction showed a higher tendency in males than in females, and those in elders were higher than in younger people. Conversely, females showed higher stress scores than males, and younger people’s score were higher than the elders. Multiple regression analysis was performed to analyze the factorial structure of satisfaction. It is suggested that the level of life satisfaction is positively related to social support, and is negatively related to the impact of stressful life events, globally perceived stress and subjective symptoms of ill health. Stress levels depended on factors concerning the psychological demands of work, work posture, work hours and work environment. Different factorial structures were observed between female and male workers. Findings from this study suggest that a strong social support network may assist in enhancing life satisfaction. Furthermore, the ill health and stress experienced in agricultural work were associated with a reduced life satisfaction.

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All residents aged 65 or over in a rural city (n=5340) were studied with a self−administered questionnaire on psychiatric symptoms, physical health status, medical history, and environmental factors. After the screening, the clinical diagnosis of senile dementia was made by psychiatrists. The overall prevalence was 4.0% among responders staying at home (201/4969). The prevalence increased with age for both males and females and tended to be higher for females than males. The multilogistic analysis of the above variables showed that in the cerebrovascular type, stroke and inactive physical status might be risk factors for both gender groups. For the Alzheimer’s type, age and inactive physical status might be risk factors. For overall dementia, age, stroke, and inactive physical status might be risk factors.

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To examine the relationships between anger expression and blood pressure (BP) levels and their effect modification by stress coping behaviors, the authors analyzed data from a cross−sectional study of 790 Japanese male workers aged 20−60 years. We used the Spielberger anger expression scales to measure anger−out, anger−in, and anger−control. Relationships between anger expression scales and mean systolic and diastolic BP levels were examined in the total sample and in two subgroups of high and low stress coping behaviors (low coping behavior group: having none, one, or two coping behaviors; and high coping behavior group: having three or more coping behaviors). Anger expression scales were not associated with BP levels in the total sample. Among men who reported only two or fewer coping behaviors, however, the anger−out score was significantly associated with systolic blood pressure (SBP) levels while no association was found among men who reported the larger number of coping behaviors. Anger−in and anger−control were not associated with BP levels in either low or high coping behavior groups. This study suggests that male workers who do not express their anger have a higher probability of developing high BP when they have no or few stress coping behaviors.

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Since the first paper by Milham et al. suggested that occupational exposure to an electromagnetic field (EMF) could increase the risk of adult leukemia, many epidemiological studies on this problem have been published. In this report the method of meta−analysis was used to summarize the results from these papers quantitatively. The combined relative risk of all leukemia (RR=1.11), as well as acute lymphocytic leukemia (RR=1.38), acute myeloid leukemia (RR=1.07) and chronic lymphocytic leukemia (RR=1.14) increased but not significantly. So far, it is difficult to make a consistent conclusion about the relationship of the occupational exposure to EMF and adult leukemia. Further carefully designed case−control and cohort studies using the more valid means of exposure assessment are required.

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