Purpose It is important to focus on various characteristics of people to promote measures for quitting-smoking. Using the Health Belief Model, we here investigated social and psychological factors related to willingness to cease smoking among factory-workers in the northern part of Kyoto Prefecture.
Method From October to November 2001, the 810 subjects were surveyed about their smoking behavior and related factors using an unsigned self-administered questionnaire. Among the 534 respondents, we performed logistic regression analysis, considering 7 factors ((1) age, (2) susceptibility, (3) seriousness, (4) benefits, (5) barriers, (6) mass-media and (7) advice from others) as independent variables and interest in smoking cessation as a dependent variable. Four comparisons ((1) “no interest” vs “precontemplation or contemplation”, (2) “no interest” vs “precontemplation”, (3) “no interest” vs “contemplation”, (4) “precontemplation” vs “contemplation”) were conducted for 239 males who were current smokers at the time of the survey.
Results Acceptance of the benefits of smoking cessation showed a significant positive association with willingness to quit smoking, with Ors for comparisons of “no interest” vs “preconemplation or contemplation”, “no interest” vs “precontemplation”, and “no interest” vs “contemplation” (odds ratios (95%CI) of 3.06 (1.76-5.31), 2.78 (1.58-4.90), 4.41 (1.75-11.15), respectively). Acceptance of the seriousness of health hazards from smoking had a significant positive association with the willingness to quit (odds ratio (95%CI) was 1.88 (1.02-3.46)).
Conclusion It is can be concluded that it is useful to enhance subjective recognition of the benefits of not-smoking and the seriousness of the harm caused by smoking, to increase the level of willingness of quitting from “no interest” to “precontemplation” or “contemplation”.

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Purpose This paper describes dietary habits and attitudes toward body weight control of college women in Japan and examines their relationships with subjective symptoms of fatigue. We also discuss strategies to promote better diets among young adults.
Methods Self-reported questionnaires were distributed to 286 young women aged 18 to 25 years; 275 of these were analyzed.
Results The study found that more than half of the women were concerned about nutritional balance and calories. Yet thirty percent ate “a single-item meal (i.e., bread, rice bowl, noodles) two or more times a day,” while roughly one half skipped breakfast “sometimes” or “always.” A majority ate vegetables “almost never” and consumed instant foods, confectionery, or sugary drinks “almost daily.” Subjective symptoms of fatigue were significantly correlated with a higher frequency of irregular meal-taking, single-item meals, between-meal snacking, missed breakfasts, non-vegetable diets, non-fruit diets, and instant foods and confectionery.
 About sixty percent of the women in the study considered their bodies to be “slightly fat or overweight” while 79.5% indicated a desire to “lose weight”. On average, the participants' ideal BMI was 18.7 (±1.2) while the ideal body weight was 47.2 (±4.1) kg, approximately 4 kg under actual average body weight. Subjective symptoms of fatigue were stronger among women who considered themselves “slightly fat or overweight”. Likewise, symptoms were stronger to the extent that a participant's ideal BMI was below her actual BMI.
Conclusion Many women in this study desired to lose weight although they were not overweight by objective measures. The study suggests that subjective symptoms of fatigue are not the result of individual dietary habits, but rather of a lifestyle that reach to series of dietary habits connected to subjective symptoms of fatigue. The study also confirms the importance both of encouraging young women not just to eat well but to lead lifestyles in which they do not skip meals and of efforts that might help them to evaluate their own bodies more objectively.

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Purpose The purpose of this study was to examine the mental health and related factors with family caregivers for the elderly in special-care nursing homes for the aged.
Methods We conducted a questionnaire survey among family caregivers for elderly living in three special-care nursing homes in Tokyo. The questionnaire included factors from the General Health Questionnaire-28 (GHQ-28) pertaining to family caregivers, the elderly, and the relationships between them. The GHQ-28 was used to measure the mental health of the caregivers and a logistic regression model was applied for the analysis.
Results Of the 145 family caregivers surveyed, 59 (40.7%) exhibited low mental health (GHQ-28≧7). The logistic regression analysis revealed that family caregivers with low mental health had lower social support (OR: 0.10 (0.03-0.29)) and had longer visiting times (OR: 5.80 (1.79-18.82)).
Discussion The results suggested that many family caregivers for elderly persons in institutions may have poor mental health and that it is necessary to provide them with support. It is concluded that self-help groups for families and the promotion of communication between the elderly and their family caregivers might be effective for this purpose.

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Objectives This study sought to assess the prevalence of intimate partner violence in a local city of Fukui Prefecture, and whether the subjects' and their partners' demographic characteristics, alcohol use, and violence experienced in the families in which they were raised might be related risk factors.
Methods We conducted a mail survey of 1,000 subjects aged 20-69 in the city randomly sampled from the population of 45,220 that were stratified by 10years of age and sex and pulled 100 from each group. Data from two 248 respondents were eligible for analysis. The self-administered questionnaire included items on; 1) whether they were the victims of physical, sexual, social-economic and psychological violence from their intimate partners, and whether they perpetrated violence or not on their partners; 2) demographic characteristics of the subjects and their partners with information on gender, age, occupation, educational background, annual income, the cohabitants, and their alcohol use; 3) the subjects' experience of violence in the family in which they had grown up; exposure to violence between their parents, and being abused by them.
Results Out of 248 subjects, men accounted for 41.5%. The prevalence rate of any violence experienced from intimate partners was 46.4%, and that of having perpetrated any violence on the partner was 43.1%. Women reported experiencing more “sexual violence” from their partners than did men. In addition, men admitted to more “physical, sexual, and psychological violence” on their partners than women. Those who had themselves been exposed to violence between parents or were victimized by their parents significantly had more experience of violence from their partners and perpetration than those who did not.
Conclusion The results suggest that questioning about the experience of violence in the family is useful for the early detection of intimate partner violence.

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Purpose To establish a scientific basis for promoting patient safety, basic information related to the incidence of adverse events (AEs) is needed. In studies in several other countries, trained nurses screened for potential AEs using explicit criteria in the first stage, and physicians reviewed selected charts in the second stage. To assure the accuracy of retrospective chart review, it is important to verify the reliability of AE judgments by physician reviewers. The purpose of this study was to test this reliability of judgment of AEs (their presence, causation of healthcare management and preventability) by three physician reviewers.
Methods This study used 100 selected charts of non-psychiatric inpatients in an acute care hospital. Three physicians independently assessed AEs and discussed their judgments with the physician who created the manual for judging AEs. We considered judgments of the AEs agreed on by the four physicians to be final AE judgments and compared the reliability of each measure related to AE judgments among the physician reviewers using the kappa statistic.
Results The number of AE cases each physician reviewer judged ranged from 18 to 27. Agreement on the presence of an AE ranged from 83.0% to 90.0% (κ=0.52~0.70). Ultimately, AEs were judged to have occurred in 16 cases while 7 cases were deferred. The agreement on the presence of an AE between the physician's and the final judgment ranged from 86.0% to 96.8% (κ=0.56~0.88). However, agreement on the causation of healthcare management and preventability between the physician's and the final judgment was not in the acceptable range.
Conclusion The reliability of each physician's judgments regarding the presence of an AE was satisfactory. However, the reliability of judgments related to the causation of health care management and preventability was not necessarily satisfactory. Therefore, it is considered important to judge causation and preventability based on discussion with clinical experts in the relevant field.

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