Japanese Journal of Health and Human Ecology

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Purpose: The purpose of this study was to investigate actual situation of snow shoveling in heavy snowfall area of Chugoku Region in Japan. Methods: This investigation was conducted using self-administered questionnaire by 1,144 adult persons in regular health checkup at Shimane prefecture Iinan town in June and July, 2009. Investigation items were basic attribute (age, gender, past medical history, Tokyo Metropolitan Institute of Gerontology Index of competence) and actual situation snow shoveling (frequency of snow shoveling in a weak, snow shoveling time of day, period of snow shoveling, wear during snow shoveling, with or without warming-up exercise). Results: The subjects were 367 out of 1,144 people (over 65 age(＝old age group) 199, more than 40 years old and less than 65 years old (＝middle age group): 122, more than 20 years old and less than 40 years old (＝young age group): 46). The answer of “everyday” in frequency of snow shoveling were indicated many people in old age group (60.3%) and middle age group (60.7%). “Before 8 oʼclock” filled a large por tion of shoveling time of day. The leading answer was “approximately half an hour” on time to shovel ing. There were many people who answers “without arctic caps (old age group: 19.6%, middle age group: 72.1%, young age group: 58.7%)” and “with cotton work gloves (old age group: 69.3%, mid dle age group: 64.8%, young age group: 54.3%)” in the wear during snow shoveling. There were a few people who performing “warming-up exercise” before snow shoveling (old age group: 8.0%, middle age group: 2.5%, young age group: 0%). Discussion & Conclusion: This investigation be came obvious that old age people shovel snow early in the morning and frequently shovel snow. Peo ple in the subject area receive such temporal stress. When people go to outdoor from indoor and shovel snow, they should thorough wear the cap and gloves with high performance of cold protection and waterproof, and they should conduct warming-up before snow shoveling.

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Objective:

We investigated at which age children who started caregiver-assisted toilet training (diaperless child care) under age 1 stopped needing diapers.

Methods:

We conducted a cross-sectional study using a self-administered mailed questionnaire in Tokyo be tween April and May 2012. The participants were mothers who started toilet training their children under age 1. At the time of the study, the children had to be ≥2 years old. Questionnaires were dis tributed to 175 mothers, and data from 125 were analyzed.

Results:

A total of 116 (92.8%) children stopped needing diapers during the day, and the mean age of the chil dren who did not rely on diapers was 21 months. Mean age did not significantly differ by characteris tics such as childʼs or the motherʼs age, family structure, or employment situation. However, it tend ed to be related to the frequency of using paper diapers and age of starting diaperless childcare.

Discussion:

An increase in the number of children using diapers at 3 years of age has been reported in recent years. However, the mean age at which children in this study did not rely on diapers during the day was <2 years. Our findings suggest that early caregiver-assisted toilet training can facilitate indepen dent toileting in children.

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