Objective: The purpose of this study was to clarify the current state of ethical issues in public health nursing encountered by nurses, along with subjective difficulties, and their experience in improving them.

Methods: We analyzed the results of an anonymous, self-administered, questionnaire-type survey completed by 526 public health nurses who worked in prefectures/municipalities throughout Japan (valid response rate: 33.2%).

Results: According to our investigation, nearly 90% of public health nurses reported that they had encountered more than 20 instances of one or more of 10 ethical issues presented in the questionnaire in the past three years. Those who indicated they had experience in improving ethical issues reported more encounters than those without, but they did not report fewer difficulties in resolution. By attribute, the number of encounters was significantly higher among those with a master’s/doctoral degree, those experienced in ethics training, and those who practice in a city center. Subjective difficulties were reported to be significantly higher among public health nurses in cities/towns than those in city centers and/or suburbs.

Discussion: Our findings suggest that when considering ethics education in public health nursing in the future, it should be necessary to strengthen practical education in the master’s program and to develop and implement educational programs according to regional characteristics.

Objective: We aimed to determine the relationship between changes resulting from engagement in voluntary health promotion activities and participation in other community activities by elderly people living in a community, to emphasize the perceived benefits of participation and provide insights into how to promote participation in other community activities.

Methods: We enlisted 152 elderly people who engaged in voluntary health promotion activities. Each participant completed an anonymous self-report questionnaire, which included questions regarding basic attitude, characteristics of the voluntary health promotion group, perceived changes after engaging in voluntary health promotion activities, and their participation in other community activities. Multiple logistic regression analysis was conducted using the frequency of participation in other community activities as the dependent variable.

Results: More than 70% elderly people were aware of the changes that they experienced after engaging in voluntary health promotion activities, including making new friends and bonding with friends during an activity, increasing knowledge of the community, and feeling more sociable and independent. The items significantly related to the frequency of participation in other community activities, after adjusting for individual factors, were increased knowledge of the community (OR=5.064), increased sociability (OR=7.598), and increased independence (OR=3.231).

Discussion: To promote participation among members of voluntary activities in other community activities, it is important to implement measures that facilitate them acquiring information, and upgrading personality traits by allowing them to create content for the activities themselves.

Objective: This study aimed to clarify the interactions between persons with dementia living in the community and their neighbors, and the related factors of these interactions, from the perspective of family caregivers.

Methods: The participants were family caregivers who cared for persons with dementia at home or had cared for such persons within the past three years. We administered an anonymous questionnaire to the participants. The related factors were analyzed using the χ² test and Fisher’s exact test.

Results: We collected 118 questionnaires from 244 participants, of which 111 were valid. Of the participants, 44.1% mentioned that the degree of interaction between persons with dementia and their neighbors decreased with the onset of dementia, whereas 49.5% caregivers asserted that the interaction was maintained or increased. The degree of interaction with neighbors was significantly associated with the composition of the family, degree of interaction before dementia onset, whether the caregiver hoped to let the persons with dementia interact with neighbors, and whether neighbors provided caregivers with positive or negative support.

Discussion: To ensure that persons with dementia maintain good interactions with the neighborhood, they should have established good relationships with neighbors before the onset of dementia. Additionally, family caregivers and neighbors should reach an understanding of the interactions that the latter can have with persons with dementia.