Objectives: The purpose of this study was to analyze the current status of factors that contribute to the appropriate use of Internet games among public school students.

Methods: A self-administered survey using Google Forms was conducted from September to November 2021. The questionnaire covered gaming experience, usage patterns, gaming environment, physical and mental effects, and household rules. The analyses included aggregation, cross-tabulation, Spearman’s correlation, the chi-square test, and logistic regression.

Results: Out of the 5,084 respondents, 4,003 (78.7%) provided valid responses. Among them, 77.9% had gaming experience. In total, 23.2% played for more than two hours on weekdays and 47.6% did so on holidays. Longer gaming hours were associated with negative physical and mental effects. Additionally, 61.5% of elementary school students and 74.1% of junior high school students reported having household rules. Gaming in a personal room, playing age-inappropriate games, and a lack of household rules were factors linked to gaming for over three hours on weekdays.

Conclusion: This study highlighted the prevalence of gaming among students and its association with negative impacts and household rules. To encourage moderate Internet gaming, it is essential to enhance the gaming environment and establish rules within the household, emphasizing the significance of parent-child communication. Future initiatives should focus on creating specific support measures for educational settings and homes.

Objective: To assess the impact of living alone on health and mortality in middle-aged men and women.

Methods: Residents (4,414 men and 5,010 women) aged 40-69 years at baseline in 1993 answered a health check-up questionnaire called Total Health Index (THI) and were followed up for 17 years. They were classified according to the number of family members and their mortality was assessed. Their health status was assessed by answering 130 questions from 13 scales of the THI, including respiratory symptoms, depressive tendency, schizophrenic tendency, and others.

Results: When the mortality rate for a family of two was set at 1, the mortality rate for families of more than three was also close to 1. However, for living alone, both men and women had a higher rate of about 1.9. The tendency to depression and schizophrenia in men and women living alone was significantly higher than in families of two. Significantly higher tendencies of nervousness, emotional instability, and mental stress were observed only in women living alone, while significantly higher tendency of irregular lifestyle was observed only in men living alone.

Conclusion: Living alone may worsen mental health, which may lead to higher mortality among people living alone.