The objective of this study was to determine the relaxing and refreshing effects of aromatherapeutic massage using Sweet Orange, a citrus fruit essential oil. Subjects were 35 female students who each received a 10-minute oil massage on their forearms. The aromatherapy group, comprised of 15 students, was treated with Sweet Orange essential oil, while the control group, comprised of 20 students, was treated without the essential oil. The subjects' skin conductance (SC) and tense arousal (TA) and energetic arousal (EA), subscales of the Japanese UWIST Mood Adjective Check List (JUMACL), were evaluated during the massages and compared between the two groups.
Decreases in SC and TA were observed during the massage in both groups, indicating the relaxing effect of massage. In addition, the decrease in EA after the massage was smaller in the aromatherapy group, indicating the refreshing effect of citrus fruit essential oil.
Furthermore, we discussed the concept of the refreshing effect, which has been used in the field of aromatherapy without a clear definition, and attempted to conceptually organize the relationships among the relaxing and refreshing effects and TA and EA.

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The purpose of this study was to introduce a screening tool to support early discharge in a special functioning hospital in order to select patients and their families who needed to cooperate with organizations and occupations outside the hospital and use social care services and to evaluate the validity of the tool.
The screening tool was consisted of six items and the cooperation with organizations outside the hospital was judged necessary if even one item among six was positive.
The results were obtained from 227 patients at hospitalization and discharge. The sensitivity and the specificity of the screening tool was 68.6% and 85.0%, respectively. There were few patients who needed to cooperate with the organization outside the hospital with negative screening. There was a significant relation between the necessity and the enforcement of cooperation with organizations outside the hospital.
In addition, patients who were executed cooperation with organizations outside of the hospital showed positive screening at a significantly higher ratio than those who did not. These results demonstrated that the screening tool could predict patients who needed to cooperate with organizations outside the hospital. From the above, the validity of the screening tool was evaluated to a certain extent.

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The objective of this study was to assess the relationship between HIV testing experience and HIV preventive behavior among gay and bisexual men who participated in an HIV testing event in the Tokai area. Questions included lifetime HIV testing experience, reasons for taking the test and evaluation of public health center testing services. In this study, data from 272 respondents were used. HIV testing experience at public health centers was low and participants evaluated the service as inconvenient due to inconvenience related to "limited and inflexible opening hours". Regarding the reasons for taking an HIV test, "taking the test with my lover or friends" "becoming anxious after hearing information about HIV" was higher among participants who have never tested in comparison with those who had tested. Less than 60% of sexually active participants use condoms consistently in anal sex in the past 6 months. These findings underscore the need to improve the accessibility and quality of HIV testing services in public health centers, promote testing behavior and to promote HIV preventive behavior among gay and bisexual men.

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This study clarifies what the elderly people living in a healthcare facility want to let their caregivers know, and declares how they are conscious of being old through their hidden demands. I interviewed eleven people, collected the data of their demands against caregivers and their consciousness of being old, and categorized them. As the result, I found a hidden demand such as 'We'd like a caregiver to know there's something more to do on our own'; to be more concrete, "We want to protect our health by ourselves", "We'll become worse if we stay as we are", and "We'd like a caregiver to believe in our potential". Some of them were having negative view of being old due to their hidden demands. So caregivers need to know their demands in order to enrich their QOL even if these elderly people don't ask them to. Therefore I suggest caregivers need to make a close relationship with them while thinking about their feelings that they can't express clearly, do their health assessment continuously, and try to get a mutual agreement on the nursing care plan as to their future.

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In their older years, people suffer many losses and it is important for them to accept their life and circumstances in a comprehensive manner. However, as they are prone to develop depression or neurosis caused by so many losses, individual mental care will become necessary.
The purpose of the present study was to lay out the psychological process experienced by the institutionalized elderly people with depression through structured life review sessions and to examine its effectiveness in mental health care. A structured life review session was given to seven elderly individuals with depression without cognitive impairment living in institutions.
At the beginning of the session, they complained about declining physical abilities and loneliness arising from living in a care facility. However, as the interviewer was involved in the structured life review sessions in a way that facilitates the elderly to reflect on their feelings for the past events and their meanings, they recalled various events and could accept their life. The results showed that the elderly followed the path of psychological process: "incompetent self", "emotions evoked by recalling memories", "revision of memories" and "ego integration". Thus, the structured life review sessions were found helpful in providing the elderly people with psychological assistance.

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The purpose of this study was to examine the correlation between depression, social supports, and subjective health and so on. Subjects were 290 elderly person (men: 142, woman: 148, average age: 74.9±5.2 years old), who belonged to a seniors club. The face-to-face interviews were conducted by using the revised UCLA loneliness scale, Mini-Mental state Examination, Duke social support inventory, and the Geriatric Depression Scale. Age, residence situation, volunteer activities, and the leisure activity and subjective health and so on were also collected. The path analyses were conducted. The score of GDS was 2.4±2.3 (max: 15), and the woman was significantly higher than men (men: 2.1±2.1 vs. women: 2.8 ±2.5). The relation between the feeling of loss and the social support was admitted in man's model (chi square＝1.883, p＝0.966, RMR＝0.014, GFI＝0.997, and AGFI＝0.979). The relation among social participation, social supports, and subjective health was shown in woman's model (chi square＝2.697, p＝0.952, RMR＝0.019, GFI＝0.993, and AGFI＝ 0.949). Results showed that the social supports were significantly correlated to depression. It suggested that close helps from community was important for the quality of life on the elderly.

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Objective
The purpose of this study was to investigate factors related to participation in periodic health examinations (annual health checkups and cancer screenings) by the elderly.
Methods
A total of 1,010 elderly persons, aged 65 and over and not needing the support of elderly care insurance, in city A, Chugoku Prefecture, were the subjects of this study.
We analyzed the relationship between perceived or clinical variables and periodic health examinations by using multiple regression analysis.
Results
From the results of our analyses, perceived benefits, the number of patients with disease, periodic visits to hospitals, hobbies, and the number of patients who were homeowners all related to participation in annual health examinations.
Perceived susceptibility to disease, family history of cancer, periodic visits to hospitals, physical activity, and hobbies were related to attendance at cancer screenings.
Conclusion
These results of intervention suggested that "perceived benefits" influences health behavior in the elderly.

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The purpose of this study was to examine the effect of hot compress application on back regions using the different temperatures, based on the influence on skin temperature and the circulatory system. Twenty healthy females participated in this study. Three methods were used; 55°C method applying a 55°C wet towel; 40°C+75°C method applying 75°C on top of the 40°C wet towel; and 40°C+65°C method applying 65°C on top of the 40°C wet towel. The hot compresses were applied to the back region for 10 minutes in the left supine position.
In all methods, the skin temperature below the blade bone from hot towel application to 15 minutes after removing the towel, and the skin temperature of the right dorsum pedis from 16 to 30 minutes after removing the towel, increased significantly compared with the rest condition.
In the 55°C method, in 3 subjects the systolic pressure decreased over 20 mmHg from the rest condition.
The 40°C+65°C method had the effects of retaining warmth similar to the 40°C+75°C method, and with little impact on the circulatory system.

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The purpose of this study is to examine characteristics and related factors of communication strategies that nursing assistants apply to persons with dementia. Participants were 47 nursing assistants of a nursing home and day service in Aichi prefecture. Research contents included queries about the assistant's sex, age, years of nursing experience, fatigue. The scale of communication strategies were involved 23 items, and composed of three factors; Consideration to receptive conversation, Consideration to speech, Patience.
Characteristics of the communicative strategies used by nursing assistants are "speaking with familiarity" for consideration to receptive conversation, and "speak loudly" and "speak slowly" for consideration to speech, as well as "speak expressing your interest in the person's ideas" for patience. Regarding factors related to nursing assistants' communication, the more nursing experience that a nursing assistants had, the more elements of communications they used, including consideration to receptive conversation, consideration to speech, and patience. Therefore, nursing assistants who were more satisfied with work gave more consideration to speech.

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In this study, a path was developed to standardize decubitus care in visiting nursing, and its effect was verified.
Subject nurses were 29 in the path group and 32 in the usual care group, and total numbers of subject clients were 90 in the path group and 102 in the usual care group.
There were no clear differences in Braden scale scores, DESIGN scores, decubitus surface areas of clients who had been cared by each nurse, and the knowledge of decubitus nursing care between the path and usual care groups. Although nurses' recognition for decubitus nursing care was significantly lower before intervention in the path group than that in the usual care group in an item, the former increased significantly after intervention. Therefore, the path was suggested to be effective in the standardization of decubitus nursing care in visiting nursing. A variance analysis of the path showed that it was needed to consider body weight measure as a sub item of nutrition in the first week, nutritional evaluation in outcome, methods to express sub items of examination and education to increase nurses' skills to assist families to improve clients' ADL and to construct good relationships with doctors.

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[in Japanese]

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