This study aimed to examine the relationship between sports injuries in the lower leg and foot and gastrocnemius muscle tightness in 43 athletes going through puberty to adolescence. Lower leg and foot injuries were evaluated by medical check-ups. The subjects performed a figure-eight jump on one leg for 20 seconds, and gastrocnemius muscle tightness was measured before and after the jump. A two-way ANOVA revealed a significant interaction between pre-and post-jump as an intra-subject factor, and injury positivity/negativity as an inter-subject factor (F=5.586, p=.023). Examination of the simple main effect showed that muscle tightness before and after the jump was significantly higher in athletes with injuries, and muscle tightness after the jump was significantly higher in both athletes with and without injuries. In addition, athletes with injuries had more significant differences in muscle tightness before and after the jump than those without injuries. A relationship between the lower leg and foot injuries and gastrocnemius muscle tightness was shown, suggesting that the way the body is moved during the jumping operation is related to the amount of increase in muscle tightness immediately after the jump and the occurrence of injuries.

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of mother and therapist vocalizations on children's neural activity with a psychomotor developmental disorder in rehabilitation situations, in order to clarify what kind of emotional effects different vocalizations of "others" have and how they affect rehabilitation intervention. A total of 9 conditions were set to 7 subjects (mean age: 4.9±2.9 years), 8 conditions for mother and therapist voice contact, and 1 condition for therapist only, in the actual rehabilitation situation, and the cranial neural activity between each condition was compared. The results showed that mother vocalizations showed brain activity in affective, motor, and cognitive regions, while therapist vocalizations showed brain activity in the linguistic region. Results suggest that mother and therapist's well-timed vocalizations can be an effective and efficient factor in supporting rehabilitation in terms of positive emotion and cognition changes, in addition to being a stimulus to promote therapeutic effects, which has already been shown to be a fundamental element in motor learning.

In recent years, health promotion for older people has focused on not only physical and cognitive functions but also subjective well-being. While social participation is considered important for subjective well-being, this is not the case for whether membership in a community association is beneficial. This study therefore examined the difference in subjective well-being from membership in a community association and participation in social activities, such as hobbies. A survey of older people living in the community was conducted, from which 14,500 responses were analyzed using logistic regression. The results revealed that social participation, membership in a community association, and willingness to join a community association affected subjective wellbeing. Consequently, it is important to encourage older people to participate voluntarily in social activities, or for those who cannot, encouraging to participate in community associations, such as those run by third parties, could be effective to some extent.

[Purpose] The purpose of this study is investigated the effect of dissection of the connective tissue between skeletal muscles in rat joint contracture caused by joint fixation and unweighting. [Materials and methods] The subjects of this study were 10-weeks old male Wistar rats. All rats were fixed the right ankle joints in full plantar flexion and suspended hind limbs for one week, divided into two groups by absence or presence of dissection of the connective tissue between gastrocnemius and soleus muscles. On the last day of this study, all of the rats’ right ankle dorsiflexion angles were measured on pre- and post-dissection. [Results] The change of the right ankle dorsiflexion angle from pre-dissection to post-dissection in dissection group was significantly larger than that in no dissection group. [Conclusion] It was shown that the dissection of the connective tissue between skeletal muscles might be improved the joint contracture.

The purpose of this study was to clarify and compare exercise intensity and mood between the newly developed Tachibana Towel Taiso and Iki–Iki Hyakusai Taiso which were aimed at the prevention of frailty. A total of 13 healthy adult male subjects were assessed for exercise intensity during each exercise, and changes in the mood before and after each exercise were measured. The results showed that the mean METs, time over two METs, time over three METs, exercise volume, maximum METs, minute ventilation rate, mean heart rate, maximum heart rate, and heart rate 3 minutes after the end of exercises were significantly higher in Tachibana Towel Taiso than those in Iki–Iki Hyakusai Taiso. The arousal and activation levels, as determined using the mood scale, were significantly higher after Tachibana Towel Taiso than before the exercise. Tachibana Towel Taiso showed higher exercise intensity than Iki–Iki Hyakusai Taiso. Positive emotions changed after Tachibana Towel Taiso, indicating that this exercise could be applied to prevent frailty in elderly people.

Objective: This study aimed to investigate the relationship between health literacy and menstrual symptoms and academic performance among female medical students. Participants and Methods: This study included 192 female students who were enrolled in the physical therapy or occupational therapy department. The health literacy scale for women of reproductive age was used to classify them into low and high health literacy groups, and the results were compared between the two groups in terms of menstrual symptoms, behaviors, and academic performance. Results: The high group had higher water retention and pain factors associated with menstrual symptoms, and took more painkillers than the low group. The high group showed a lower level of commitment outside of class time and a higher number of presenteeism days compared with the low group. Conclusion: The high group consumed analgesic medication as a coping method for menstrual symptoms, but their academic performance was lower than that of the low group.