Journal of Epidemiology
Online ISSN : 1349-9092
Print ISSN : 0917-5040
ISSN-L : 0917-5040
22 巻, 2 号
選択された号の論文の13件中1~13を表示しています
Review Article
  • Ritei Uehara, Ermias D. Belay
    2012 年 22 巻 2 号 p. 79-85
    発行日: 2012/03/05
    公開日: 2012/03/05
    [早期公開] 公開日: 2012/02/04
    ジャーナル フリー
    Kawasaki disease (KD) is a systemic vasculitis that mainly affects children younger than 5 years. Although Dr. Tomisaku Kawasaki first reported KD over 40 years ago, the cause of the disease remains unknown. Currently, KD has been diagnosed in more than 60 countries, including those in Asia, the Middle East, Latin America, and Africa, as well as in North America and Europe. The purpose of this review is to describe the epidemiologic features of KD—particularly its incidence, seasonality, and the occurrence of coronary artery abnormalities—primarily in Japan and the United States, but also in Europe and other Asian countries.
  • Keita Morikane
    2012 年 22 巻 2 号 p. 86-90
    発行日: 2012/03/05
    公開日: 2012/03/05
    [早期公開] 公開日: 2012/02/04
    ジャーナル フリー
    In Japan, the practice of infection control in healthcare settings has a short history of less than 3 decades. Before that, infection control practices were far from perfect and even ignored. This review summarizes changes in infection control in Japan since the 1980s and offers some comparisons with practices in foreign countries, especially the United States. Infection control is far better now than 25 years ago, but there remain fundamental issues that limit the development of better infection control practices. These problems include insufficient funding and human resources due to the socialized healthcare insurance system in Japan and the lack of interest in infection control research.
Original Article
  • Thamar Ayo Yila, Seiko Sasaki, Chihiro Miyashita, Titilola Serifat Bra ...
    2012 年 22 巻 2 号 p. 91-102
    発行日: 2012/03/05
    公開日: 2012/03/05
    [早期公開] 公開日: 2012/01/21
    ジャーナル フリー
    Background: Intracellular folate hemostasis depends on the 5,10-methylenetetrahydrofolate reductase (MTHFR) gene. Because 5,10-MTHFR 677TT homozygosity and tobacco smoking are associated with low folate status, we tested the hypothesis that smoking in mothers with 5,10-MTHFR C677T or A1298C polymorphisms would be independently associated with lower birth weight among their offspring.
    Methods: We assessed 1784 native Japanese mother-child pairs drawn from the ongoing birth cohort of The Hokkaido Study on Environment and Children’s Health. Data (demographic information, hospital birth records, and biological specimens) were extracted from recruitments that took place during the period from February 2003 to March 2006. Maternal serum folate were assayed by chemiluminescent immunoassay, and genotyping of 5,10-MTHFR C677T/A1298C polymorphisms was done using a TaqMan allelic discrimination assay.
    Results: The prevalence of folate deficiency (<6.8 nmol/L) was 0.3%. The 5,10-MTHFR 677CT genotype was independently associated with an increase of 36.40 g (95% CI: 2.60 to 70.30, P = 0.035) in mean infant birth weight and an increase of 90.70 g (95% CI: 6.00 to 175.50, P = 0.036) among male infants of nonsmokers. Female infants of 677TT homozygous passive smokers were 99.00 g (95% CI: −190.26 to −7.56, P = 0.034) lighter. The birth weight of the offspring of smokers with 5,10-MTHFR 1298AA homozygosity was lower by 107.00 g (95% CI: −180.00 to −33.90, P = 0.004).
    Conclusions: The results suggest that, in this population, maternal 5,10-MTHFR C677T polymorphism, but not the 5,10-MTHFR A1298C variant, is independently associated with improvement in infant birth weight, especially among nonsmokers. However, 5,10-MTHFR 1298AA might be associated with folate impairment and could interact with tobacco smoke to further decrease birth weight.
  • Yoshimi Nakatani, Junko Tamaki, Misa Komatsu, Masayuki Iki, Etsuko Kaj ...
    2012 年 22 巻 2 号 p. 103-112
    発行日: 2012/03/05
    公開日: 2012/03/05
    [早期公開] 公開日: 2011/12/31
    ジャーナル フリー
    Background: Current health education programs for osteoporosis prevention are not strictly evidence-based. We assessed whether distribution of an evidence-based guideline improved such programs at municipal health centers.
    Methods: This randomized controlled trial evaluated 100 municipal health centers throughout Japan that were randomly selected from those that planned to revise osteoporosis prevention programs. The implementation status of educational items recommended by the guideline was assessed before and after the intervention by evaluators blinded to the allocation. After the pre-intervention assessment, centers were randomly allocated in a 1:1 ratio to intervention and control groups by a minimization method defining region and city/town as stratification factors. Centers in the intervention group were given copies of the guideline; centers in the control group were instructed to use any information except the guideline. Analyses were performed on an intention-to-treat basis.
    Results: The guideline was used by 50% of the intervention group. Before the intervention, there was no significant difference in the evidence-based status of health education between the groups. The post-intervention assessment showed that the implementation rates of health education on dietary calcium intake for postmenopausal women and exercise for elderly persons were higher in the intervention group. Specific advice on intakes of calcium and vitamin D and exercise became more evidence-based in the intervention group.
    Conclusions: The findings suggest that the guideline helped healthcare professionals to improve health education programs by making them more evidence-based. However, the improvements seemed to be limited to items that the professionals felt prepared to improve.
  • Kuan-Chia Lin, Hui-Chuan Huang, Ya-Mei Bai, Pei-Chun Kuo
    2012 年 22 巻 2 号 p. 113-122
    発行日: 2012/03/05
    公開日: 2012/03/05
    [早期公開] 公開日: 2011/12/24
    ジャーナル フリー
    Background: Little research focuses on the influence of lifetime residential mobility on health at midlife. We used a national survey of participant recall of residential mobility to assess this issue and explore the mediating and moderating effects of personal and environmental context.
    Methods: In March 2010, we collected data from people in Taiwan aged 40 to 60 years. Based on the household registration system, data were collected using the population proportional-to-size sampling method and a computer-assisted telephone interview. A total of 2834 participants completed the interview. Based on the 3490 registered households, the overall response rate was 81.2%.
    Results: The mean cumulative frequency of geographic relocation (CFGR) was 3.06 ± 2.78 times and ranged from 0 to 21. After carefully adjusting for the heterogeneity of demographic and socioeconomic propensity, total CFGR was significantly positively associated with negative self-rated mental (odds ratio [OR] and 95% CI for increase per time: 1.06, 1.02–1.16) and physical (OR and 95% CI for increase per time: 1.16, 1.05–1.26) health. Social network support lessened the impact of total CFGR on self-rated mental health. In addition to the primary effect, the interaction (residential environmental satisfaction × total CFGR) significantly moderated negative mental health and negative physical health.
    Conclusions: Lifetime residential mobility history independently influenced midlife health. Social network support and satisfaction with the residential environment in past and current living places further mediated or moderated midlife health. Findings from these different perspectives offer insights for future medical care projects and epidemiologic studies.
  • Bo Hu, Wei Li, Xingyu Wang, Lisheng Liu, Koon Teo, Salim Yusuf
    2012 年 22 巻 2 号 p. 123-129
    発行日: 2012/03/05
    公開日: 2012/03/05
    [早期公開] 公開日: 2012/01/14
    ジャーナル フリー
    Background: We investigated the effects of marital status and education on the risk of acute myocardial infarction (AMI) in a large-scale case-control study in China.
    Methods: This study was part of the INTER-HEART China case-control study. The main outcome measure was first AMI. Incident cases of AMI and control patients with no past history of heart disease were recruited. Controls were matching by age (±5 years) and sex. Marital status was combined into 2 categories: single and not single. Education level was classified into 2 categories: 8 years or less and more than 8 years.
    Results: From 1999 to 2002, we recruited 2909 cases and 2947 controls from 17 cities. After adjustment for age, sex, BMI, psychosocial factors, lifestyle, other factors, and mutually for other risk factors, the odds ratio (OR) for AMI associated with being single was 1.51 (95% confidence interval: 1.18–1.93) overall, 1.19 (0.84–1.68; P = 0.072) in men and 2.00 (1.39–2.86; P < 0.0001) in women. The interaction of sex and marital status was statistically significant (P = 0.045). Compared with a high education level, a low education level increased the risk of AMI (1.45, 1.26–1.67); the odds ratios in men and women were 1.29 (1.09–1.52) and 1.55 (1.16–2.08), respectively. Single women with a low education level had a high risk of AMI (2.95, 1.99–4.37).
    Conclusions: Being single was consistently associated with an increased risk for AMI, particularly in women. In addition, as compared with high education level, low education level was associated with a higher risk of AMI in both men and women.
  • Yukiko Morimoto, Gertraud Maskarinec, Shannon M. Conroy, Unhee Lim, Jo ...
    2012 年 22 巻 2 号 p. 130-135
    発行日: 2012/03/05
    公開日: 2012/03/05
    [早期公開] 公開日: 2012/02/11
    ジャーナル フリー
    Background: Ethnic differences in body fat mass and distribution may develop in childhood and contribute to increased obesity-related disease risk among Asians. We used dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry (DXA) to evaluate adiposity measures among adult women and their adolescent daughters, who were of predominantly Japanese and white ethnicity.
    Methods: We obtained DXA whole body scans for 101 mothers aged 30 years or older and 112 daughters aged 10 to 16 years. The participants were classified as Asian, part-Asian, mixed/other, or white. As a measure of central adiposity, we calculated the trunk/peripheral fat ratio (TPFR). General linear models were used to evaluate differences in adiposity measures by ethnic category.
    Results: In mothers, TPFR was significantly higher (Ptrend < 0.01) in Asians and part-Asians (1.38 ± 0.42 and 1.32 ± 0.51) than in mixed/others and whites (1.18 ± 0.27 and 1.09 ± 0.21). The trend was similar among daughters (Ptrend < 0.001), with respective values of 1.09 ± 0.18, 0.97 ± 0.17, 0.99 ± 0.16, and 0.87 ± 0.11. Among mothers, gynoid fat mass and peripheral fat mass were significantly lower in Asians than in whites, whereas none of the regional DXA adiposity measures differed by ethnicity in daughters.
    Conclusions: These results confirm previous reports of greater central adiposity in women of Asian ancestry and indicate that ethnic differences in adiposity are already present in adolescence.
  • Xiaoxiao Li, Tao Pei, Haotong Xu, Fasheng Tao, Haiyan You, Yan Liu, Yu ...
    2012 年 22 巻 2 号 p. 136-143
    発行日: 2012/03/05
    公開日: 2012/03/05
    [早期公開] 公開日: 2012/02/18
    ジャーナル フリー
    Background: Chronic mountain sickness (CMS) is a complex medical and public health problem that seriously affects highland immigrants. This study investigated relationships between community-level factors and CMS.
    Methods: In this ecological study, data on age- and ethnicity-standardized CMS rates, community factors, and controlling variables were obtained from 2009–2010 surveys of 108 Chinese highland military units. Associations among variables were examined using correlation tests, analyses of covariance, and logistic regression.
    Results: The rate of CMS ranged from 1.25% to 36.58% (mean: 14.65%, standard deviation: 8.15%) among military units. Partial correlation tests indicated that medicine expenditure was strongly negatively correlated with CMS (r = −0.267, P = 0.005). Analyses of covariance indicated that communities with oxygen-generating systems had lower CMS rates (F = 9.780, P = 0.002), whereas urban location (F = 5.442, P = 0.022) and construction duty (F = 4.735, P = 0.011) were associated with higher CMS rates. The multiple logistic model showed that medicine expenditure (OR = 0.897, P = 0.022), oxygen-generating system (available vs unavailable: OR = 0.827, P = 0.020), community type (urban vs rural: OR = 1.228, P = 0.019), and occupation (construction vs logistics: OR = 1.240, P = 0.029) were significantly associated with CMS.
    Conclusions: We identified community-level, health-related factors that were associated with CMS among young male immigrants. To alleviate the burden of CMS in these highland immigrant populations, further investment should be made in medicine and oxygen-generating systems, and preventive interventions should be implemented among construction workers. Further research should investigate the effects of urbanization on CMS development.
  • Toru Tsuboya, Shinichi Kuriyama, Masato Nagai, Atsushi Hozawa, Yumi Su ...
    2012 年 22 巻 2 号 p. 144-150
    発行日: 2012/03/05
    公開日: 2012/03/05
    [早期公開] 公開日: 2012/01/21
    ジャーナル フリー
    Background: Although experimental studies have shown that gamma-glutamyltransferase (GGT) has a role in tumor progression, epidemiologic evidence for a relationship between GGT and cancer incidence is limited. The present study investigated the association between GGT and cancer incidence and assessed the role of alcohol consumption in this association.
    Methods: We examined a cohort of 15 031 Japanese adults aged 40 to 79 years who attended a health checkup in 1995 and were free of cancer at that time. GGT was measured using the Szasz method. The participants were then followed from 1 January 1996 until 31 December 2005, and cancer incidence was recorded by using the Miyagi Regional Cancer Registry. Hazard ratios (HRs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) were computed for each quartile of GGT and compared. The lowest quartile (GGT <13.0 IU/ml) was used as the reference category.
    Results: We documented 1505 cancers. Among participants in the highest quartile (GGT ≥31.0 IU/ml), the multivariate HR for any cancer was 1.28 (95% CI, 1.08–1.53; P for trend, <0.001), the HR for colorectal cancer was significantly greater than unity, and the HRs for esophageal, pancreatic, and breast cancers were greater than unity but not significantly so. This positive trend was observed only in current drinkers.
    Conclusions: Our findings suggest that there is a positive relationship between GGT and cancer incidence only for alcohol-related cancers in current drinkers and that the positive association of GGT with cancer incidence largely reflects alcohol consumption.
  • Satomi Kobayashi, Satoru Honda, Kentaro Murakami, Satoshi Sasaki, Hito ...
    2012 年 22 巻 2 号 p. 151-159
    発行日: 2012/03/05
    公開日: 2012/03/05
    [早期公開] 公開日: 2012/02/18
    ジャーナル フリー
    Background: A comprehensive self-administered diet history questionnaire (DHQ: 150-item semi-quantitative questionnaire) and a brief self-administered DHQ (BDHQ: 58-item fixed-portion–type questionnaire) were developed for assessing Japanese diets. We compared the relative validity of nutrient intake derived from DHQ with that from the BDHQ, using semi-weighed 16-day dietary records (DRs) as reference.
    Methods: Ninety-two Japanese women aged 31 to 69 years and 92 Japanese men aged 32 to 76 years completed a 4-nonconsecutive-day DR, a DHQ, and a BDHQ 4 times each (once per season) in 3 areas of Japan (Osaka, Nagano, and Tottori).
    Results: No significant differences were seen in estimates of energy-adjusted intakes of 42 selected nutrients (based on the residual method) between the 16-day DRs and the first DHQ (DHQ1) or between the DR and the first BDHQ (BDHQ1) for 18 (43%) and 14 (33%) nutrients, respectively, among women and for 4 (10%) and 21 (50%) nutrients among men. The median (interquartile range) Pearson correlation coefficients with the DR for energy-adjusted intakes of the 42 nutrients were 0.57 (0.50 to 0.64) for the DHQ1 and 0.54 (0.45 to 0.61) for the BDHQ1 in women; in men, the respective values were 0.50 (0.42 to 0.59) and 0.56 (0.41 to 0.63). Similar results were observed for the means of the 4 DHQs and BDHQs.
    Conclusions: The DHQ and BDHQ had satisfactory ranking ability for the energy-adjusted intakes of many nutrients among the present Japanese population, although these instruments were satisfactory in estimating mean values for only a small number of nutrients.
  • Hideo Matsuura, Kanae Mure, Nobuhiro Nishio, Naomi Kitano, Naoko Nagai ...
    2012 年 22 巻 2 号 p. 160-166
    発行日: 2012/03/05
    公開日: 2012/03/05
    [早期公開] 公開日: 2012/02/18
    ジャーナル フリー
    Background: Metabolic syndrome has become a major worldwide public health problem. We examined the relationship between coffee consumption and the prevalence of metabolic syndrome among Japanese civil servants.
    Methods: The study participants were 3284 employees (2335 men and 948 women) aged 20 to 65 years. Using data from their 2008 health checkup records, we analyzed the relationship between coffee consumption and the prevalence of metabolic syndrome. Metabolic syndrome was defined according to the Japanese criteria.
    Results: Metabolic syndrome was diagnosed in 374 of the 2335 men (16.0%) and 32 of the 948 women (3.4%). In univariate and multiple logistic regression analyses, the odds ratios (ORs) among men for the presence of metabolic syndrome were 0.79 (95% CI: 0.56–1.03) and 0.61 (0.39–0.95), respectively, among moderate (≥4 cups of coffee per day) coffee drinkers as compared with non-coffee drinkers. Among all components of metabolic syndrome, high blood pressure and high triglyceride level were inversely associated with moderate coffee consumption in men, after adjusting for age, body mass index, smoking status, drinking status, and exercise. However, in women, moderate coffee consumption was not significantly associated with the prevalence of metabolic syndrome or its components.
    Conclusions: Moderate coffee consumption was significantly associated with lower prevalence of metabolic syndrome in Japanese male civil servants.
Study Profile
  • Yukiko Takao, Yoshiyuki Miyazaki, Fumitake Onishi, Hideaki Kumihashi, ...
    2012 年 22 巻 2 号 p. 167-174
    発行日: 2012/03/05
    公開日: 2012/03/05
    [早期公開] 公開日: 2012/02/18
    ジャーナル フリー
    Background: The incidence and risk factors for herpes zoster have been studied in cross-sectional and cohort studies, although most such studies have been conducted in Western countries. Evidence from Asian populations is limited, and no cohort study has been conducted in Asia. We are conducting a 3-year prospective cohort study in Shozu County in Kagawa Prefecture, Japan to determine the incidence and predictive and immunologic factors for herpes zoster among Japanese.
    Methods: The participants are followed for 3 years, and a telephone survey is conducted every 4 weeks. The participants were assigned to 1 of 3 studies. Participants in study A gave information on past history of herpes zoster and completed health questionnaires. Study B participants additionally underwent varicella-zoster virus (VZV) skin testing, and study C participants additionally underwent blood testing. If the participants develop herpes zoster, we evaluate clinical symptoms, measure cell-mediated immunity and humoral immunity using venous blood sampling, photograph skin areas with rash, conduct virus identification testing by polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and virus isolation from crust sampling, and evaluate postherpetic pain.
    Results: We recruited 12 522 participants aged 50 years or older in Shozu County from December 2009 through November 2010. The participation rate was 65.7% of the target population.
    Conclusions: The present study is likely to provide valuable data on the incidence and predictive and immunologic factors for herpes zoster in a defined community-based population of Japanese.
Short Communication
  • Kohta Suzuki, Naoki Kondo, Miri Sato, Taichiro Tanaka, Daisuke Ando, Z ...
    2012 年 22 巻 2 号 p. 175-178
    発行日: 2012/03/05
    公開日: 2012/03/05
    [早期公開] 公開日: 2012/01/21
    ジャーナル フリー
    Background: Although maternal smoking during pregnancy has been reported to have an effect on childhood overweight/obesity, the impact of maternal smoking on the trajectory of the body mass of their offspring is not very clear. Previously, we investigated this effect by using a fixed-effect model. However, this analysis was limited because it rounded and categorized the age of the children. Therefore, we used a random-effects hierarchical linear regression model in the present study.
    Methods: The study population comprised children born between 1 April 1991 and 31 March 1999 in Koshu City, Japan and their mothers. Maternal smoking during early pregnancy was the exposure studied. The body mass index (BMI) z-score trajectory of children born to smoking and non-smoking mothers, by gender, was used as the outcome. We modeled BMI trajectory using a 2-level random intercept and slope regression.
    Results: The participating mothers delivered 1619 babies during the study period. For male children, there was very strong evidence that the effect of age in months on the increase in BMI z-score was enhanced by maternal smoking during pregnancy (P < 0.0001). In contrast, for female children, there was only weak evidence for an interaction between age in months and maternal smoking during pregnancy (P = 0.054), which suggests that the effect of maternal smoking during pregnancy on the early-life BMI trajectory of offspring differed by gender.
    Conclusions: These results may be valuable for exploring the mechanism of fetal programming and might therefore be clinically important.
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