Background: Resilience is an important ability in reducing subsequent health risks from poverty. This study aimed to examine whether reading books in fourth grade boosts resilience in sixth grade and whether poverty status modifies the association.

Methods: We used a part of longitudinal data from 2018 to 2020 from the Adachi Child Health Impact of Living Difficulty (A-CHILD) study. In this analysis, we used all fourth-grade elementary school students and their caregivers’ follow-up data (n = 3,136 9- to 10-year-olds; 49.6% boys; follow-up rate: 87%). Poverty and the number of books read in fourth grade were assessed at baseline. Child resilience in fourth and sixth grade was assessed by caregivers using the Children’s Resilient Coping Scale.

Results: In fourth grade, 20% of children read no books, while 15% read 4 or more books per week. Children who read more books at baseline became more resilient in sixth grade, even after adjustment of resilience in fourth grade. Poverty in fourth grade was associated with lower resilience in both fourth and sixth grade; however, when stratified by poverty status, the number of books read was significantly associated with higher resilience only among children in poverty (eg, coefficient 5.13; 95% confidence interval CI, 1.20–9.06 for ≥4 books vs none).

Conclusion: For elementary school children in Japan, reading books boosts resilience, especially among children in poverty. Educational policy on reading books during elementary school may be important to address child poverty.

Background: Non-random participation can undermine the representativeness of seroepidemiological surveys. Despite their critical role in estimating disease spread during pandemics, non-response bias and methods to correct it require further investigation. This study aimed to examine sociodemographic characteristics and coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19)-related factors influencing participation in a seroepidemiological survey.

Methods: We analyzed data from a national COVID-19 seroepidemiological survey in Japan between December 2022 and March 2023. We performed multivariable logistic regression analyses to estimate adjusted odds ratios (aOR) and their confidence intervals (CIs) after variable selection with the Group Least Absolute Shrinkage and Selection Operator.

Results: Among 6,091 participants, factors associated with higher odds of seroepidemiological surveys participation included being female (aOR 2.08; 95% CI, 1.25–3.47), living in larger households versus living alone (two: aOR 2.34; 95% CI, 1.20–4.55; four or above: aOR 2.05; 95% CI, 1.03–4.06), higher education levels versus junior high school education (high school: aOR 2.66; 95% CI, 1.06–6.15; junior colleges, technical colleges, vocational schools: aOR 5.51; 95% CI, 1.94–15.07; university and above: aOR 3.30; 95% CI, 1.26–7.98), and having a higher household income versus earning <2 million yen (2–4 million yen: aOR 3.32; 95% CI, 1.52–7.33; 4–6 million yen: aOR 2.73; 95% CI, 1.20–6.23, ≥6 million yen: aOR 4.51; 95% CI, 1.91–10.59). Lower seroepidemiological survey participation odds were observed in those hesitant or unwilling to vaccinate (aOR 0.16; 95% CI, 0.09–0.29) and those perceiving a higher COVID-19 positivity rate among close contacts (aOR 0.98; 95% CI, 0.98–0.99).

Conclusion: Education, income, household size, sex, vaccination status, and perceived infection risk influenced seroepidemiological survey participation. The findings highlight the need to account for non-response bias using weighted methods like inverse probability weighting.

Background: More research is needed to clarify the health effects of dietary carotenoid intakes, and this requires the use of high-quality assessments of habitual dietary intake. Cohort studies from the Tohoku Medical Megabank Organization included a self-administered food frequency questionnaire (TMM-FFQ) for community-dwelling adults. This study evaluated the validity of carotenoid intakes derived from the TMM-FFQ using serum carotenoid concentrations as the gold standard.

Methods: In Miyagi Prefecture, 88 men and 124 women aged ≥20 years voluntarily agreed to participate in the study and provided completed TMM-FFQs and blood samples in 2019 and 2021. Carotenoids examined included α-carotene, β-carotene, β-cryptoxanthin, and lycopene. Intraclass correlation coefficients (ICCs) were calculated to assess correlations between serum concentrations in 2019 and 2021. Spearman’s rank correlation coefficients were calculated to evaluate the correlations between energy-adjusted dietary carotenoid intakes from the TMM-FFQ in 2021 and the average serum carotenoid concentrations in 2019 and 2021, with correction for the attenuating effect of random within-individual variation.

Results: The ICCs between serum concentrations over the 2 years were >0.50 for all carotenoids. Among men, correlation coefficients were 0.33 for α-carotene, 0.42 for β-carotene, 0.50 for β-cryptoxanthin, and −0.09 for lycopene. Among women, the coefficients were lower than those for men, except for lycopene: 0.11 for α-carotene, 0.23 for β-carotene, 0.21 for β-cryptoxanthin, and 0.28 for lycopene.

Conclusion: The TMM-FFQ demonstrated reasonable validity for assessing intakes of α-carotene, β-carotene, and β-cryptoxanthin among men, but not among women, in the TMM cohort studies when using serum concentrations as the gold standard.

Background: The potential impacts of polygenic scores (PGS) on health-behavior changes are not fully understood. The Iwate PGS Assessment and Risk Communication Study aims to investigate the effects of reporting PGS-based risk for ischemic stroke on health behaviors.

Methods: Participants wishing to know their PGS-based ischemic stroke risk were recruited from health checkup venues for workers in Iwate Prefecture in 2023. Health checkup data, biospecimens, and questionnaire responses were collected for biochemical testing, genotyping, and storage in the Tohoku Medical Megabank integrated biobank. The risk was calculated using an integrative PGS model for East Asians. Participants were randomly assigned to two groups, and one group received their risk report as the intervention group. The impacts of the risk notification will be investigated in follow-up surveys.

Results: Of 3,599 workers, 2,088 participated in the study (consent rate: 58.0%). The demographic profile of the eligible 2,083 participants was as follows: 80.7% males, and dominance of participants aged 18–29 years (25.2%), in their 30’s (25.3%), and in their 40’s (24.7%). Two hundred participants (9.7%) had a risk of 1.0 as the reference; 57 (2.7%), 927 (44.7%), and 888 (42.9%) participants had 2.1–3.4-, 1.4–1.9-, and <1.0-fold that risk, respectively.

Conclusion: We collected health information and biospecimens from over 2,000 workers and disclosed the PGS-based ischemic stroke risk. Behavioral effects will be evaluated 1 year after disclosure, with follow-up until 2030. As Japan’s first large-scale PGS risk communication study, it will provide initial insights for implementing PGS in personalized preventive medicine.