Japan, known for its good healthcare access via universal health insurance, leads the world in terms of life expectancy, and possesses a public health system that has improved health standards markedly in the 20th century. However, we currently face major challenges to maintain and promote people's health. Although these complicated problems pose numerous threats to public welfare, education of public health for health professionals still retains 20th-century standards. This also means that graduate education of public health in Japan is traditionally based on obtaining licensure as a medical professional, conducting research and writing papers, and on-the-job training. Since graduate school education is expected to produce competent public health leaders, Japan requires a reform toward a new education design that caters to the current societal needs.
 The current global trend in the education of health professionals leans toward outcome-based education to meet core competencies. Here, “competency” refers to a set of features or particular behavioral patterns possessed by highly qualified persons. In 2006, the World Health Organization (WHO) established a general health professional competency standard that includes both management and leadership competencies. Moreover, the Lancet Commission concluded that there was a need for transformative education based on a “health system approach.” In brief, this means that our education should correspond to the needs of the health system to allow for the resolution of problems by educated professionals with satisfactory levels of competencies. In addition, as “change agents,” these competent professionals are expected to promote societal change toward the realization of better public health.
 In Japan, the Central Education Council has produced several reports on professional graduate school reform since 2000. These reports indicate that graduate school curricula require reform to allow the health professionals to work locally and globally, as well as to solve problems through the application of systematic knowledge that matches practice with theory.
 Therefore, with reference to the current Japanese health situation, global trends in education, and the Japanese educational policies, transformational changes are needed toward a new era of Japanese public health education specifically through outcome-based education to improve the health professionals competencies. We hope that education in the new schools of public health will contribute to solve authentic public health problems and create a healthy future with competent professionals.

View full abstract

Objective In order to assess the impact of educational content on students, this study investigated junior high school students’ awareness of older adults’ daily lives and the social resources available for older adults.
Methods Participants were 967 second-year students at a public junior high school in S city. A complete enumeration survey was conducted using anonymous self-administered questionnaires. The survey items obtained information about participants’ demographic characteristics, their perceptions of older adults’ daily life, and their awareness of the social resources for older adults.
Results Of the 555 returned questionnaires (57.4%), 490 (50.7%) valid responses were analyzed. A total of 158 participants (32.2%) lived with their grandparents, and 232 participants (47.3%) had some experience living with their grandparents, most of whom still lived independently. Further, 303 participants (61.8%) met their grandparents at least once or twice a week. The mean age of participants’ grandparents was 72.2 years. The mean age that the participants regarded a person as “elderly” was 71.3 years. Participants’ perceptions of older adults’ daily lives included decreased physical ability due to aging, need and desire to stay in touch with family and/or friends, and enjoying hobbies and pleasurable activities. Participants who met their grandparents at least once or twice a week perceived elderly life as more cheerful compared to participants who met their grandparents once or twice a month or less. The participants were familiar with some social resources for older adults such as “administrative disaster-prevention wireless communication system,” “transportation service by car,” and “visiting nurse.” Female participants were aware of significantly more social resources compared to male participants, as were participants who met their grandparents at least once or twice a week compared to those who met their grandparents once or twice a month or less.
Conclusion Although participants were aware of the age-related physical changes, they were unaware of the difficulties associated with these changes in the daily lives of older adults. Gender and frequency of contact with grandparents may have contributed to junior high school students’ awareness of social resources for older adults.

View full abstract

[in Japanese]

View full abstract

Objectives Detecting outbreaks early and then activating countermeasures based on such information is extremely important for infection control at childcare facilities. The Sumida ward began operating the Nursery School Absenteeism Surveillance System (NSASSy) in August 2013, and has since conducted real-time monitoring at nursery schools. The Public Health Center can detect outbreaks early and support appropriate intervention. This paper describes the experiences of Sumida Public Health Center related to early detection and intervention since the initiation of the system.
Methods In this study, we investigated infectious disease outbreaks detected at 62 nursery schools in the Sumida ward, which were equipped with NSASSy from early November 2013 through late March 2015. We classified the information sources of the detected outbreak and responses of the public health center. The sources were (1) direct contact from some nursery schools, (2) messages from public officers with jurisdiction over nursery schools, (3) automatic detection by NSASSy, and (4) manual detection by public health center officers using NSASSy. The responses made by the health center were described and classified into 11 categories including verification of outbreak and advice for caregivers.
Results The number of outbreaks detected by the aforementioned four information sources was zero, 25, 15, and 7 events, respectively, during the first 5 months after beginning NSASSy. These numbers became 5, 7, 53, and 25 events, respectively, during the subsequent 12 months. The number of outbreaks detected increased by 47% during the first 5 months, and by 87% in the following 12 months. The responses were primarily confirming the situation and offering advice to caregivers.
Conclusion The Sumida Public Health Center ward could achieve early detection with automatic or manual detection of NSASSy. This system recently has become an important detection resource, and has contributed greatly to early detection. Because the Public Health Center can use it to achieve real-time monitoring, they can recognize emergent situations and intervene earlier, and thereby give feedback to the nursery schools. The system can contribute to providing effective countermeasures in these settings.

View full abstract