Effect of dietary fiber (DF) to obtain a confortable defecation was investigated using nine adult female in health. Meals used in this study contained the recommended energy (1900-2000Kcal/ day) in females of twenties with the fixed nutritional composition. Meals were divided into four different types; meals containing uncalculated quantity of DF (conventional meal) and meals with three different quantities of DF (10g, 20g and 30g/day). All subjects took three different DF meals one after another for 5 days for each. Intervals of 5 days or more with conventional meals were placed between each DF meal. The volume of stool and the frequency of defecation were increased by DF intake in a dose dependent manner. A regular defecation was obtained by DF meals (1/day for 20g DF and 1-2/day for 30g DF). Subjects with the chronic constipation also responded to meals with DF although an individual difference was shown. A stool appeared to be softened by a relatively large quantity of DF (>20g/day). A residual stool, abdominal full sensation, and anal pain on evacuation as accompanied symptoms with defecation were much less in meals containing DF 20g/day, while meals with DF 10g or 30g/day rather increased a symptom such as a residual stool compared with a conventional meal. In addition, all subjects complained an excess of volume of meals containing DF 30g/day. Concerning with effectiveness on bowel movement and accompanying symptoms, the present results suggest that meals containing DF 20g/day were the most suitable to obtain a confortable defecation. An individual difference in response to DF meal, however, requires a more detailed investigation.

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The object of this study is to investigate the nurisng goal for the elderly patients who have diabetes with onset at their old age, in terms of their self-care behavior and the quality of life.
The interview was conducted to assess the following point: 1) their self-care mostly concerned with diet, 2) their perception of self-care, 3) influence of the illness, 4) self-esteem, and 5) their subjective well-being. The subjects consisted of 107 elders who had diabetes. Two findings were obtained.
The first findings are about the feature of self-care behavior of these subjects: (1) Most patients approved the importance of diet, and did as well as they could, but the strategy was not strict; they did only weigh rice. (2) Strongest restriction because of diabetes they perceived was dietary restriction, however most of the subjects did not perceive social restriction. The second finding is that the positive self-care behavior of diabetes is closely related with high QOL.
We concluded that they could improve their notion of subjective well-being through self-care and that we could help them raising their QOL by admittingtheir effort of self-care and by supporting them. Which is the nursing goal for elderly diabetics.

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The purpose of this study was to investigate which anthropometric measurement to focus on as an indicator of recovery of nutritional status in patints after gastrectomy for the cancer of the stomach. 64 patients with no signs of recurrence were followed for one year after discharge from the hospital, and changes in their body weight (BW) and upper arm measurements were assessed in relation to the amount of food intake and their desire to recover BW.
The findings were as follows:
1. The postoperative recovery of BW was poor, with almost no change in BW from 6 months after discharge. TSF decreased markedly after dischange, while AMC increased only slightly.
2. Food intake had decreased to 73% of preoperative levels 6 months after discharge, and was consistent with decreased anthropometric measurements at that time.
3. Patient desire to recover BW was greater in those with lower %BW; the critical point for the presence of a desire to recover BW was estimated to be approximately 85%.
4. Among patints with 86% or higher levels of %BW after 6 months, both average of %BW and %AMC were maintained at levels of more than 90%. In those with %BW less than 85%, %AMC was approximately 89%, however, depletion of TSF was remarkable, which was reflected in a lower %BW, contributing to a divergence between %BW and %AMC. 5. Considering that %AMC is related to muscle strength and consequently important to activities of daily livilng, and that changes in BW are compensated for by depletion of TSF and regain of AMC, the above findings indicate that AMC should be given greater importance in the assessment of recovery.

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