Objectives:

This study aimed to examine the reciprocal exchange of social support between participants in preventive care activities for long-term care in urban areas, as well as its balance with daily relationships with neighborhoods.

Methods:

We distributed an anonymous, self-administered questionnaire targeting 872 elderly people involved in preventive care activities.

Social support between participants in preventive care activities was determined using a scale for measuring the degree of social support exchange regarding to instrumental and emotional support. We classified into four patterns: “high-exchange type”, “high-give type”, “high-receive type” and “low-exchange type”. The connection with the neighborhood was evaluated about the degree and the number of people. The relationship between the patterns of balance of reciprocal exchange of social support and daily relationships with neighborhoods was analyzed by multiple logistic regression.

Results:

Valid data were collected from 554 elderly people (63.5%). Our analysis found that the median of instrumental support receive score was a minimum of 3 points, so there were few occurrences of instrumental support with regard to the reciprocal exchange of social support by those involved in preventive care activities. However, there were 229 elderly people that were receiving and giving emotional support with each other.

There were significantly higher daily relationships of the degree (OR=2.16:95%CI1.14-4.09) and the number of people (OR=1.87:95%CI1.01-3.45) between the elderly who had a well-balanced reciprocal exchange than between those who had an insufficient level of reciprocal exchange of support.

Conclusion:

Our results imply that well-balanced reciprocal exchange of emotional support through participation in preventive care activities is effective in promoting daily relationships with neighborhoods.

喫煙の心身への影響が，有病・死亡リスク調査および症状調査票THIによって日本人中年男性集団3,376名を対象者とした追跡疫学調査によって定量的に検討された．この集団は喫煙量によって，吸わない，1日1-19本吸う，20-29本吸う，30本以上吸う，の4階級に分けられた．THIは呼吸器，消化器，短気，うつ病，攻撃性など心身が15面に尺度化されており，各尺度は症状等が「よくある」3点，「時々ある」2点などと点数化されて個人毎に尺度得点化される．尺度得点が高いことは，ある尺度を構成する症状等が多いあるいは強いことを意味する．

喫煙本数が高くなるにつれて呼吸器尺度，消化器尺度，夜更かし生活等の尺度得点の喫煙度による階級の集団の平均値は線型に大きくなった．他の他愁訴，短気，気懸り，うつ病などの7尺度は，線型でなく大量喫煙者のみ尺度得点が高くなるJ 字型の量反応曲線であった．神経質尺度と心身症尺度は4つの喫煙クラスで平均尺度得点は変わらずほぼ一定していた．肺がんの死亡リスクは大量喫煙者で特に高かった（死亡リスク比＝3.71）．大量喫煙者の割合はうつ病者群のみで高かった（p＝0.0014）．

Objective: Every disaster had drawn attention to food stockpiles. There is a possibility that its quality and quantity have changed through disaster experiences. In order to help to consider future strategies, we clarified the countermeasures that had not been progressed while they had been acknowledged as a problem for long time and the areas moved ahead from the events and newspaper articles in the past 30 years.

Methods: Articles published in Yomiuri and Asahi Newspapers between 1879 and 2018 were searched by a keyword query on “food stockpile.” The authors independently reviewed 530 articles and excluded 210 irrelevant ones. The remaining 320 articles were ordered chronologically and grouped into ten categories.

Results: The number of articles increased not only after natural disasters but also during Year 2000 problem and the pandemic of influenza A (H1N1). Countermeasures to people stranded due to mass transit disruptions and the food stockpiling bill had not been progressed. Recommended quality and quantity of food stocks were improved after the Great East Japan Earthquake and publication of the final report on the Nankai Trough Giant Earthquake Countermeasures while actual stockpiles did not meet the recommendation.

Discussion: Other than natural disasters, the increased number of articles could be caused by people’s concern about the risks of technology accidents and infections and social needs for information. Given the fact that stockpile by companies and food stocks for one week have not been achieved, obligatory and financially supported measures such as the food stockpiling law would be necessary.