Objective: To develop the new health practice index (HPI) for Japanese.
Methods: The cross-sectional analysis was conducted among 849 Japanese health check-up examinees of ages 24 to 81 years old in 1999. Their lifestyles were evaluated by questionnaire consisted of ten unhealthy practices : weight gain, habitual drinking, smoking, physical inactivities, unhealthy styles of eating, snack eating, high-fat meal, salty meal, shortage of sleep, and fail to brush one's teeth. Chi-square test and ROC analysis were performed to examine the association between these practices and diseases such as obesity, impaired glucose tolerance, hypertension, hyperlipidemia, low HDL cholesterolemia, hyperuricemia and liver dysfunction.
Results: As a result of chi-square test, weight gain, habitual drinking, smoking, physical inactivities, style of eating and teeth brushing showed significant relationship with lifestylerelated diseases. Furthermore, as a result of ROC analysis, the total number of unhealthy practices (Japanese Health Practice Index, JHPI) showed good performance to some of these diseases such as obesity, low HDL cholesterolemia and liver dysfunction.
Conclusions: We have developed and applied the new HPI for Japanese (JHPI) . Although further longitudinal studies are needed, this new index has the possibility of risk assessment of lifestylerelated diseases in Japan.
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