Objective This study was conducted to examine the correlation between interactions of younger elderly women with close non-family friends and neighbors and their health-related QOL, in order to expand understanding of social relationships of the elderly and their health perceptions.
Methodology Questionnaires were mailed to 1,000 randomly selected women aged 65 to 74 living in City A (population: 180,000; elderly: 14.9%), a bed town community outside a metropolitan area. From 602 valid replies, analysis was limited to self-reports from 525 women who were independent in daily life and interacted with close non-family friends and neighbors. For this purpose the Daily Mutual Caring Interactions (DMCI) scale was applied —its items indicate aims and reciprocal acts in interactions of younger elderly women with close non-family friends and neighbors (Cronbach's α=0.85)— and the Japanese Version SF-36v2, a widely used measure of health-related QOL (Cronbach's α=0.93). Structural equation modeling analysis examined the four constructs of DMCI and their correlations with the physical and psychological health-related components of SF-36v2.
Results The conceived meaning of a correlation among DMCI constructs in the final model (GFI=0.930, RMSEA=0.045) is that there is “an appropriate distance between individuals” by holding “mutual concern for each other's daily lives” and “sympathetic mutual understanding”, and through these mutual actions one is able to “confirm one's own identity.” An extremely weak positive correlation was found between “sympathetic mutual understanding” and the physical and psychological components of SF-36v2. However, no significant correlations were found for “confirmation of one's own identity,” the objective of interaction, with either physical or psychological components. An additional finding was an extremely strong correlation between SF-36v2 physical and psychological components.
Conclusion From our study of the interactions of younger elderly women with close non-family friends and neighbors and their health-related QOL, there are no clear direct links that would support the idea that social relations enhance physical or psychological health perceptions. Even so, because the model fits the data for younger elderly women aware of irreversible changes brought on by aging and irrespective of their degree of perceived health, it is possible that interactions with non-family friends and neighbors help these women to share an understanding of existing conditions and live their lives actively and positively. From the perspective of the QOL of the elderly, this suggests the necessity for further discussion about effects of supporting elderly people's own health enhancement efforts that focus on the social aspects of daily life.

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Background and Purpose We have launched a new intervention study, called “REPRINTS” (Research of productivity by intergenerational sympathy) in which senior volunteers aged 60 years and over engage in reading picture books to school children, regularly visiting public elementary schools since 2004. The purpose of this study was to clarify characteristics of images of older people held by elementary school children and factors associated with such images, as well as to examine changes in images through intervention by “REPRINTS” senior volunteers (volunteers) for the initial one year period.
Methods Subjects & setting: Four to six volunteers as a group visited A elementary school in a suburb Kawasaki city (470 students) twice a week to read picture books. The baseline survey was conducted one month after launching the volunteer activity. First and second follow-up surveys were conducted at 6 month intervals after the baseline survey.
 Measurements: Grade, gender, short version of emotional-like image scale of older adults assessed by the SD (Semantic Differential) method (6 items in the subscale for “evaluation” and 4 items in the subscale for “potency/activity”), experience of living with grandparents, experience of interchange with older people, frequency of interchange with volunteers and the social desirability scale for children.
Result Related variables for a higher score in the subscale for “evaluation” included lower grade and abundant experience of interchange with older people such as grandparents. Those for “potency/activity” included lower grade, male gender, and a higher social desirability scale for children in the multiple logistic regression model.
 Students were divided into two groups in terms of frequency of interchange with volunteers (low and high-frequency groups) through three surveys. In the subscale for “evaluation”, the general linear model demonstrated a significant interaction between the group and number of surveys adjusted for confounding factors.
Conclusion Although emotional images of older people significantly decline with advancing grade, those of students with a high frequency of interchange with volunteers were here found to be maintained more positively over one year compared to those with a low frequency.

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Objective The present study was conducted to obtain information about smoking status of psychiatric patients and to determine whether there might be a demand for smoking cessation support for this group of people. In addition, the smoking status of psychiatric medical staff members, their awareness regarding smoking and related issues, and their attitude to promotion efforts to ameliorate smoking in their working place were examined.
Methods Outpatients and inpatients with schizophrenia, mood disorders, and alcoholism in Koutokukai Sato Hospital during December 2001 and May 2002, and staff of the hospital were the subjects in this study. We surveyed smoking status in both 296 patients and 222 staff members.
Results Smoking rates were 77.4% in males and 39.3% in females among patients with schizophrenia, 87.5% in males and 100% in females among patients with bipolar mood disorders, 69.6% in males and 5.4% in females among patients with depression, and 86.7% in males and 100% in females among patients with alcoholism. Among those smokers, 78.1% were nicotine dependent. However, 75.7% of these smokers were interested in smoking cessation, and 49.0% hoped for prohibition of smoking. The findings thus indicated that the demand for smoking cessation support is high in psychiatric patients. Among the staff, the smoking rate was also high, at 45.5% (males: 76.6% and females: 29.0%). As for the age at beginning of smoking, the peaks were at 18 years old and 20 years old. Smokers who smoked less than 20 cigarettes per day accounted for 80% of the total. Of the smokers, 91.1% recognized that their smoking bothered the people around them. If the working place was smoke free, however, 66.3% answered it would be difficult to adapt, and only 24% wanted to stop smoking recently. On the other hand, 29.8% of the non-smokers were bothered with smoking at the working place, and 76.0% hated smoke of cigarettes. When one wanted a smoker not to smoke, 22.7% of the non-smokers could say so. Of the staff members, 80.0% agreed with anti-smoking measures. However, it appeared that their consciousness of smoking issues was low as medical workers.
Conclusions The smoking rate of psychiatric patients and the prevalence of nicotine dependence are high. However, half of the subjects in the present study expressed a desire to quit smoking, pointing to a high demand of smoking cessation support. Psychiatric staff at the institution studied had a high smoking rate, and their recognition of smoking issues was low.

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Objective Health promotion volunteers (HPVs) are members of community health organizations. They are delegated health promotion activities in local communities in Japan, under support of municipal administrative officers, including public health nurses. The purpose of the present study was to compare the levels of consciousness of activities among HPVs by years of experience.
Methods The subjects were 600 HPVs in two cities in a prefecture. A mail-in self-check questionnaire survey was conducted on November 2004, covering items on “demographic-data,” “the condition of activities of HPVs,” “self-evaluation of activities of HPVs,” “self-esteem,” and “consciousness in the community.”
Results A total of 514 questionnaires were analyzed (valid response rate: 85.7%). HPVs in the groups of 4-8 years and 9 and more years of experience, felt more challenge and had a greater feeling of self-growth than those in the group of 1-3 years, although HPVs in the group with many years of experience felt more difficulty with the activities. HPVs in the 4-8 year group experienced the highest sense of burden, and HPVs in the 9 and more years group the lowest. Moreover, consciousness in taking leadership in organization of HPVs was stronger, and sense of responsibility for roles as HPVs were greater in the group of HPVs who had many years of experience.
Conclusion In building structures of activity of HPVs it is important to consider their levels of consciousness of the activities by years of experience, as clarified in this study.

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Purpose This study investigated the actual situation surrounding implementation of health education programs using information technology (IT-program) and assessed the related environmental factors, including public health nurses' awareness of the importance and barriers to IT-program adoption in local Japanese municipalities.
Methods All municipalities of 50,000 people or more (Big-town) and randomly selected municipalities of less than 50,000 people (Small-town) were surveyed. In February 2005, questionnaires about IT-programs were mailed to a total of 1,267 municipalities. Public health nurses in charge of health education responded to the questionnaire. An IT-program was defined as a non face-to-face program using information technology, such as e-mail or the internet (excluding telephone counseling), for disease prevention and lifestyle modification.
Results The response rate to the questionnaire was 70.1% in this survey. A personal computer and internet access had been installed in over 95% of municipalities. The rate of IT-program implementation was 3.9% in Big-towns and 1.1% in Small-towns. The rate of respondents who were aware of existence of IT-programs was 74.2% in Big-towns and 63.7% in Small-towns. Respondents who felt a need for an IT-program comprised 42.5% in Big-towns and 25.0% in Small-towns, whereas about half of respondents answered, “Neither”. It was expected that merits of IT-program were diversification of populations participating in health education, efficiency of data management, and individualization of programs. The barriers to IT-program adoption were lack of budget, labor power constraints and availability of an IT system.
Conclusion At the time of the investigation, health education programs using information technology had been implemented by only few local municipalities in Japan. However, the existence of IT-programs was well known, and public health nurses had great expectations of the merits of IT for health education. To promote the implementation of health education programs using IT, it is necessary to develop an IT program that addresses public needs, then provide evidence of its utility and increase its availability.

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