BACKGROUND：Balancing employment and family caregiving is a major challenge, and the number of workers leaving or changing jobs due to caregiving has increased with population aging. Although the Child Care and Family Care Leave Act was established to support work‒care balance, current utilization remains limited, suggesting difficulties in accessibility and usability. Leaving work for caregiving causes labor loss, economic insecurity, and social isolation. Achieving a sustainable balance between work and caregiving is therefore an urgent issue．OBJECTIVE：This study aimed to clarify the current situation, challenges, and directions for support among employed family caregivers providing home-based care for older adults, to obtain fundamental data for developing support systems．METHODS：A literature review was conducted using Ichushi-Web, PubMed, and JDream Ⅲ. Inclusion criteria were（1）employed family caregivers providing home care for older adults,（2）daily caregiving regardless of cohabitation, and（3）original articles in Japanese or English published between 2010 and 2024. Studies from countries with different long-term care systems were excluded．RESULTS：Increasing caregiving demands reduced caregivers’ personal and sleep time, heightening burden. Burden reduction required long-term care services, family and community support, and time away from caregiving. Gender differences were evident: men showed psychological resistance, while women faced resignation and financial strain. Cases at risk of social isolation needed individualized support．CONCLUSION：Reducing caregiver burden requires the use of long-term care services, family cooperation, community support, and workplace cultures that enable caregiving leave and individualized interventions.

BACKGROUND：The mental health of junior high school teachers has been steadily deteriorating. One of the contributing factors is their responsibility for supervising extracurricular sports activities, highlighting the need for social support（SS）from external sports coaches. PURPOSE：This study focused on junior high school teachers who supervise extracurricular sports clubs and receive SS from sports coaches. The aim was to develop and examine the reliability and validity “Competitive SS Scale” and “Educational SS Scale” by sports coaches. METHODS：In October 2024, a web-based survey was conducted with 172 junior high school sports club advisors. First, using factor analysis to assess factorial validity. Convergent and discriminant validity were evaluated by calculating correlations between the new scales and the “Short Version of the Workplace Social Support Scale.” Concurrent validity was assessed by examining correlations with the “S-WHO-5-J” and “Ikigai-9” scales. To verify reliability, Cronbach’s alpha coefficients and I-T correlations were calculated. RESULTS：In terms of factor validity, both the Competitive SS Scale and The Educational SS Scale were composed of instrumental, emotional, and informational support. Convergent validity and Discriminant validity confirmed significant correlations between all subscales of the new scales and validated scale. Concomitant validity showed weak or moderate for all subscale scores of the new scales and the “S-WHO-5-J” （r = 0.198-0.363） and the “Ikigai-9”（r =0.269-0.415）. Reliability tests showed good values for both Cronbach’s alpha coefficient（α = 0.751-0.891）and I-T correlation（r = 0.567-0.816）. CONCLUSION：Some concerns remain regarding the discriminant validity of certain subscales-particularly “instrumental support” and “emotional support”-the scale can nonetheless be considered a practical and applicable assessment tool for use in educational settings.

BACKGROUND：The degree of compatibility with various exercise support tools available today would differ across people’s personality traits. OBJECTIVE：This study examined whether the associations of exercise support tool use with habitual exercise and exercise time and the prevalence of the tool users differed by personality traits among middle-aged and older adults. METHODS：We conducted a cross-sectional online questionnaire survey with 1908 exercisers aged 50-79 years. The survey items included exercise support tool use（participations in exercise groups, purchase/use of exercise equipment, viewing exercise information in print media, participation in face-to-face exercise classes/counseling, participations in online social networking sites for exercise, use of exercise apps, seeking/viewing exercise information online, participation in online exercise classes/counseling）, habitual exercise, exercise time, and personality traits（extraversion, agreeableness, conscientiousness, neuroticism, openness）. RESULTS：Agreeableness significantly strengthened the associations between participation in exercise groups and exercise time. Openness significantly strengthened the associations between participation in online exercise classes/counseling and both habitual exercise and exercise time. Significant and positive associations were observed between extraversion and greater participation in exercise groups and face-to-face exercise classes/counseling, greater viewing of exercise information in print media, and greater seeking/viewing of it online; between agreeableness and greater purchase/use of exercise equipment and greater seeking/viewing of exercise information online; between conscientiousness and greater purchase/use of exercise equipment ; and between openness and greater seeking/viewing of exercise information online. CONCLUSION：The effectiveness of using support tools on promoting exercise behavior and the degrees of using them might differ across personality traits.

BACKGROUND：There is a lack of research on the competencies required by public health dietitians to improve the food environment. The qualities and abilities needed by students in dietitian and nutritionist training programs―who are expected to promote food environment improvements in the future―have not been systematically examined.OBJECTIVE：This study aims to evaluate the self-assessed core competencies required by public health dietitians to promote food environment improvements and to identify the qualities and abilities needed by students in dietitian and nutritionist training programs. METHODS：In November 2020, an online survey was conducted among dietitians and nutritionists responsible for food environment improvements in local governments. Nine core competencies necessary for implementing food environment improvements were assessed by public health dietitians. Self-assessed competencies were compared based on the implementation status of food environment improvements in 2019. Information on the qualities and abilities expected of students was also gathered. RESULTS：Responses were obtained from 1,286 individuals. For all the competencies, individuals who “always implement” these competencies had significantly higher odds of implementing food environment improvements compared to those who “rarely implement” them. The top qualities and abilities expected of students were assessment skills, problem identification and analysis, and project planning. CONCLUSION：Public health dietitians who implement food environment improvements demonstrated high scores across all competency assessments, particularly in assessment skills. Students are expected to develop the ability to identify issues through assessments and formulate business plans.

BACKGROUND：The goal of nutritional education is the maintenance and improvement of health and the enhancement of quality of life（QOL）, which require evaluation after implementation. It is necessary to evaluate the outcomes of educational programs after implementation to ensure these objectives are met. Supporting health maintenance is important for collegiate athletes; however, objective evaluation through physiological and biochemical tests aimed at preventing health issues is challenging, and practical subjective indicators are lacking. Thus, the development of a validated subjective health status scale is needed. To create such a scale, it is necessary to clarify, from the perspectives of athletes and coaches, the desirable health states they aim for. OBJECTIVE：This study aimed to qualitatively clarify how collegiate athletes and coaches perceive athletes’ health status and satisfaction with training. METHODS：Individual interviews were conducted with 8 collegiate athletes and 8 coaches on their desired health status in training, as well as their satisfaction with training. Verbatim records were organized using content analysis. RESULTS：The desired health status for training was classified into seven categories, including “overall physical condition” and “weight management.” Perspectives for measuring training satisfaction were categorized into eight items, including “psychological satisfaction,” “technical satisfaction,” and “physical satisfaction.” CONCLUSION：Desired health conditions and training satisfaction were demonstrated through specific and diverse perspectives. Based on these findings, future work will focus on developing a questionnaire and constructing a validated subjective health status scale that can serve as an outcome goal of nutrition education for collegiate athletes.

BACKGROUND：The association between adipose tissue insulin resistance and circulating fatty acid binding protein 4（FABP4）remains unclear. OBJECTIVE：This study investigated the association between adipose tissue insulin resistance, cardiovascular disease risk factors, and adipokine levels using both cross-sectional and longitudinal analyses. METHODS：Data were analyzed from 73 participants（cross-sectional）and 52 participants（longitudinal）enrolled in a community-based lifestyle intervention program. Adipose tissue insulin resistance was assessed using the adipose tissue insulin resistance index（Adipo-IR）. Participants were stratified into tertiles based on their baseline Adipo-IR and changes in Adipo-IR over time. Participant characteristics, cardiovascular disease risk factors, and adipokine levels were measured. RESULTS：Cross-sectional analysis: After adjustment for fat mass, significant differences across Adipo-IR tertiles were observed for several variables, including tumor necrosis factor α（TNF α）, but not for FABP4. Partial correlation analysis adjusted for fat mass revealed significant correlations of Adipo-IR with several variables, including TNF α, but not with FABP4. Longitudinal analysis: Homeostatic model assessment for insulin resistance（HOMA-IR）and TNF α showed a significant increasing trend across tertiles of change in Adipo-IR, whereas FABP4 did not show such a trend. Changes in Adipo-IR were significantly correlated with changes in HOMA-IR and TNF α, but not with changes in FABP4. CONCLUSION：Our findings suggest that adipose tissue insulin resistance appears to have little direct effect on circulating FABP4 levels. In contrast, inflammation may be closely involved in the quality and its changes of adipose tissue, thereby influencing systemic insulin resistance.

BACKGROUND：One of the reasons for the insufficient increase in vegetable intake among Japanese people is the lack of self-monitoring of their vegetable consumption. As an objective self-monitoring method, a device（VEGE CHECK）to estimate vegetable intake easily and non-invasively from the amount of skin carotenoid was developed. It is expected that an increase in the number of citizens who use this device will contribute to an increase in vegetable intake. OBJECTIVE：This study aimed to install this device in a supermarket and validate the impact of nudge-based postings on the spontaneous self-monitoring of customers visiting the store. METHODS：Based on the cognitive biases that influence self-monitoring estimated in the previous study, decorations（displays and streamers）including nudges were designed using the Easy, Attractive, Social, and Timely（EAST）framework. A nudge group using these decorations and a control group using existing decorations were randomly assigned to three stores each, and the number of measurements and measurement rates relative to the number of customers visiting the supermarkets were compared from November to December 2022. RESULTS：The average number of measurements in the control group was 98/day, and the average measurement rate was 1.1%. The average number of measurements in the nudge group was 235/day and the average measurement rate was 2.5%, significantly higher than in the control group（P < 0.001）. The increase in measurement rate due to nudges was 2.5 times greater on weekdays and 2.2 times greater on holidays（P < 0.001）. CONCLUSION：The findings suggest that decorations designed through the EAST nudges could promote measurement of this device regardless of the day of a week.