Background: It has been reported that there is a pattern of onset of overweight and underweight in children and students. The prevalence of overweight children and students in Aomori Prefecture is higher than the national average for all grades, but a large-scale longitudinal analysis of overweight and underweight among children and students has not been conducted. Therefore, it has not been clarified whether there is a particular pattern in the onset of overweight or underweight. Thus, in Aomori Prefecture, large-scale longitudinal analysis on overweight and underweight of children and students is required. As the harmful effects of childhood obesity have become widely known and enlightenment activities have been carried out, overweight prevalence of children and students has been decreasing in recent years. Further reduction of overweight and underweight prevalence requires a high-risk approach, for which longitudinal data on overweight and underweight transitions is strongly required.

Objective: We aim to clarify whether there is a particular pattern in the prevalence of overweight and underweight children and students in Aomori Prefecture.

Methods: We constructed a pseudo-cohort using data from the Aomori Prefecture children and Student’s Health and Physical Fitness Survey Report from fiscal year (FY) 2007 to FY2018 (full survey) and the Annual Report of School Health Statistics Researches by the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (sample survey). Classification of overweight and underweight was based on standard weight. We longitudinally compared the prevalence of overweight and underweight by gender and age between Japan and Aomori Prefecture for children born between FY2000 and FY2006, until FY2018. Furthermore, dividing Aomori Prefecture into six districts, we analyzed overweight and underweight prevalence of children and students born between FY2000 and FY2006 by age (6-17) and gender longitudinally.

Results: The prevalence of overweight children and students increased from age 6 in both boys and girls, reaching a maximum at age 9. This was one year earlier than the national average, and the same tendency was observed in each region. The prevalence of children with a tendency to be underweight was highest at age 11 and increased from age 6. Additionally, in some districts we found that both overweight and underweight prevalence increased.

Conclusion: The maximum prevalence age of overweight children and students in Aomori Prefecture was shown to be one year earlier than the national average and was similar by birth year and by district in this prefecture. This implies that intervention is needed earlier than usually thought.

Background: Education on medicines was implemented as part of health and physical education at all junior high schools since 2012 in Japan, after the revision of Course of Study. However, no studies have been done on a nationwide scale to evaluate this curriculum’s effectiveness.

Objective: The aim of this study is to assess the association between awareness of taking education on medicines, and knowledge, attitudes and behavior about medicines.

Methods: We conducted a national cross-sectional survey using an anonymous self-administered questionnaire in 2017. We randomly selected 83 public high schools from each prefecture in Japan and distributed our questionnaires to 15-16 years old first year high school students. The questionnaire included questions concerning gender, health care, medicine use, consulting partner, experience of purchasing, getting and giving medicines, and knowledge, attitudes and behavior about medicines.

Results: The number of valid responses was 17,437 (effective response rate was 98.5%). Of these, 29.5% responded that they remembered taking the education on medicines class, 24.9% responded they had never participated, and 45.2% did not remember. For both male and female students, those who remembered taking the class scored significantly higher on the questions regarding knowledge of terminology, knowledge of proper use, and attitudes and behavior than those who had not taken the class or did not remember.

Conclusion: Our findings suggest that a memorable education on medicines class may be effective in promoting students’ proper use of medicines. However, we found that many of the students did not remember taking the class. It is therefore necessary to develop and establish education on medicines programs with validated effectiveness. Furthermore, the results of this study imply that there is a need for further investigation on the implementation status of the class at junior high school.

Background: The World Health Organization has recognized intimate partner violence and sexual violence as significant international health and human rights issues, and has recommended strengthening preventive measures. These are serious human rights problems that need to be addressed as soon as possible. In Japan, there has been an increase in sexual violence that involves people who meet each other via the Internet.

Objective: This study was performed to investigate the influence of web-based education for preventing sexual violence among junior high school students in Japan.

Methods: From September 2015 to February 2016, we surveyed a total of 788 students aged 13 to 14 years at 10 junior high schools where the principals gave approval for this research. Group education concerning domestic violence was provided to all students. We investigated the usefulness of education for preventing sexual violence by web-based education. The attitude of participants to perpetration of physical and emotional violence was assessed, as well as utilization of healthy conflict resolution skills in peer and dating relationships of participants.

Results: A total of 730 students consented to participate in this study (valid response rate, 92.6%) before receiving group education, and 671 consented to the follow-up survey (valid response rate, 85.2%). Students who completed internet learning after group education (intervention group, n=305) were compared with those who did not participate in internet learning (control group, n=366). In boys, webbased education achieved improvement of attitudes to physical violence, other-oriented emotional reactivity (empathy), assertiveness, discussion with other individuals, and attack avoidance, while girls showed improvement of discussion with other individuals.

Conclusion: This study suggested that web-based education on prevention of sexual violence is effective for decreasing the occurrence of violence and increasing healthy conflict resolution.

Background: Cervical cancer is becoming a repressible disease since females can receive the human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine and undergo regular cancer screenings. However, the rates of HPV vaccination and cervical cancer screening have been low for many years in Japan, which can be attributed to a low level of awareness among the Japanese. Actually, Japanese schools do not practice cancer prevention education in a systematic and systemic manner.

Objective: This study aimed to develop an educational program within the Japanese health curriculum to enhance behavioral intentions to prevent cervical cancer among female high school students and evaluate the educational program’s short-term efficacy by assessing its processes and impact.

Methods: A pre-experimental study design was used. The participants were 95 female first-year students (mean age = 15.8; standard deviation: SD = .42) who participated in the educational program at a prefectural high school in Tohoku region’s Prefecture “A” in Japan. The program consisted of five standard 50-minute learning sessions conducted in a lecture-and-workshop format as part of the school’s health courses.
A self-administered questionnaire survey was conducted before and immediately after the program to examine its process and efficacy, and three months after the program to evaluate its short-term efficacy. The process evaluation investigated work sheet utilization, activity status, and satisfaction with educational materials and the program. The impact evaluation examined behavioral intentions and its related components (five components).

Results: The program was completed without difficulty and rate of work sheet utilization was high. The participants were highly satisfied with the educational materials and the program. Additionally, the scores of behavioral intentions showed a statistically significant immediate increase, which was sustained even after three months. All related components of behavioral intentions after the program were statistically significantly higher than those before the program.

Conclusion: The educational program was effective in enhancing short-term behavioral intentions among female high school students in Japan.

Background: In the case of survey research, it is important to consider the sampling method and increase response rates for the survey to enhance the representativeness of the surveyed sample. Of several strategies, a monetary incentive has been widely known as the most effective way to increase response rates. However, this finding has been derived mainly from social surveys in the western countries, and little is known about the difference in response rates with and without a monetary incentive in the field of school health research.

Objective: This study aimed to clarify the influence of cooperation reward and other related factors on the response rate of a parent survey.

Methods: From late September to early October of 2016, a self-administered questionnaire survey was conducted for 5^th- and 6^th-grade students and their homeroom teachers in eight public elementary schools as well as their parents in six schools in four areas of A prefecture. In the student survey, a questionnaire was distributed by the homeroom teachers, responded to by the students in the class, and collected in individual envelopes after sealing. In the parent survey, students brought survey forms and two envelopes home to their fathers and mothers, and their parents individually completed the surveys and sealed the envelopes, and the students brought them to school. In addition, except for some elementary schools, we prepared a “Quo-Card” for a cooperation reward.

Results:Of the parent surveys conducted with 434 families in 6 elementary schools, both or either father or mother of 278 families cooperated (64%). The response rate in the survey was 78% (195/249) with a cooperation incentive and 45% (83/185) without it, yielding a significant difference (χ² = 51.58, p < .001). Combined with the gender of the homeroom teacher, there was no gender difference in response rate when there was a cooperation reward (78% for both), but a significant gender difference was found (34% for male, 65% female) when without it. Some student-level variables significantly correlated with response rate survey cooperation could be regarded as reflecting the situation of well-adjusted students, such as satisfaction with study, fewer academic stressors, and stressors from/with friends, among others.

Conclusion: The response rate improved by about 30% with a cooperation reward, but the influence of teacher's instruction and some other factors could not be ignored.

Background: Childcare and education professionals in Japan have increasingly complained that growing numbers of children “tire instantly,” “constantly fidget,” or “are unable to sit still during childcare or class.” Against this backdrop, there is a belief that contemporary Japanese children exhibit underdeveloped or distorted higher brain functions related to satisfaction or feelings of fulfillment.

Objective: We aimed to ascertain the characteristics of five higher brain function types in contemporary Japanese children with a focus on reaction times and reaction magnitudes to positive conditional stimuli.

Methods: We recruited 301 boys and 300 girls in elementary school grades 1-6 in October 2012. We collected data on grasp motor responses to light stimuli go/no-go tasks that have long been used in Japan.

Results: The no task errors in the differentiation experiment and the go and no task errors in the reverse differentiation experiment exhibited a significant interaction between sex and grade level (no task errors: p=0.043, go errors: p=0.008, no task errors: p=0.006), whereas other indicators did not. In addition, melancholic type was better represented among boys than among girls, with the type becoming less common among girls in higher grades. Analysis of task parameters for different types in the differentiation experiment revealed that response times (RTs) were significantly shorter for the choleric type than for other types and longer for the inhibitory type, whereas the coefficients of variation in RT (RT-CVs) were significantly greater for the melancholic type than for other types. Analysis of response parameters for the phlegmatic and sanguine types in the reverse differentiation experiment revealed significant difference in the RT-CVs and the coefficients of variation in peak response magnitude (Peak-CVs) of the two groups.

Conclusion: The type frequencies of higher brain function in contemporary Japanese children may vary by sex and grade. Our results may provide an important guide in the reformation of daycare and educational practices to address the changing higher brain function profiles of contemporary children.