Objective: This article aims to review how to use a term and concept of empowerment in nutrition education studies.
Methods: The Medline and Ichushi Web databases were searched for literature published in English and Japanese before March 2006. “Nutrition, ” “education, ” “empowerment” in English and “nutrition, ” “dietary education, ” “dietary life, ” and “empowerment” in Japanese were used as the key words. A total of 34 papers in English and 16 papers in Japanese were reviewed.
Results: Description of the definitions or concepts of empowerment were found in 6 English papers and 10 Japanese papers. There was no agreed definition. How to use the term “empowerment” and its concepts were different from each field. The concept of empowerment in the clinical nutrition field, mainly focused on the individual/ psychological empowerment, tended to be used from the medical staff standpoint of view. It had wider meanings in the community nutrition field relating to the three levels, individual, organizational and community empowerment.
Conclusion: Empowerment studies have not been sufficiently conducted in the field of nutrition education. It is necessary to clarify the concept of empowerment and indicators for its evaluation in Japan for conducting more studies on empowerment.

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Objective: To categorize the health volunteer activities of government health centers and elucidate their characteristics.
Methods: Self-administered questionnaires were sent by mail to 1175 municipal health centers systematically sampled from government health centers nationwide. Questionnaire items included activity contents, organizational operations, activity outcomes, and population conditions. Data were analyzed by cluster analysis of activity content scores, followed by a comparison of questionnaire items among categories. Completed questionnaires were received from 606 (51.6%) institutions, of which 511 (43.5%) provided volunteer activities and were thus included in the analysis.
Results: Cluster analysis identified the following categories of activities: “child care support”, “inactive”, “cooking support”, and “adult support”. Overall, “inactive” was the most common type (56.0%) . Furthermore, “child care support”, “adult support”, and “cooking support” activities were found to be associated with a large number of activity items, implementation rate, total participation rate, implementation placement rate and active involvement of volunteers in goal setting. Conclusion: The present findings suggest that government health centers should function as administrative and supportive bodies for autonomous small group activities to fit the characteristics of the four activity categories.

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Objective: The purpose of this study is to make clear that the chronological evaluation between physical health and social health for the urban elderly dwellers.
Methods: The questionnaire survey was conducted to all 16, 462 urban elderly dwellers of 65 years old or more in A City in September, 2001. The answer was obtained from 13, 195 people (response rate of 80.2%) . The follow-up survey of 8, 560 members was done in September, 2004. By using Cross-Lagged Effects Models and Synchronous Effects Models, the causal relationships were analyzed.
Results: All elderly were seen that [the physical factor] ( [] means latent variable) and [the social factor] conducted on the follow-up survey in 2004 would be significantly affected by the same latent variable, which was investigated in 2001 regarding the chronological evaluation. As also would be estimated from the analyses, [the social factors] of the first survey had significant influence on [the physical factor] of the follow-up survey for both sexes regarding the causal relationship. However, [the physical factor] of the first survey except elderly men and women would have significant influence on [the social factor] of the follow-up survey.
Conclusion: It was suggested that the physical health would be affected by the social health during three years follow-up in the urban elderly dwellers. Further study is needed how we could attain a high external validity.

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Objective: Little attention has been paid to the type of communication that occurs at academic societies and other similar institutions, or an academic society as Health Conference has not attracted peoples attention. Therefore, we studied the round table session (hereafter called the RT), which is a presentation method that readily stimulates communication between participants. We aimed at studying the influence of an RT's location and the interchanges that occur in RTs.
Methods: We studied the themes, number of participants, and languages (degree of technicality, eloquence, and formality) used in five RTs that were held on June 5, 2004 using a questionnaire (participants answered questions on the sheet in their own words) . We collected qualitative information about the current positioning/status and process of RTs. The participants of this study were 52 (out of) participants who submitted the questionnaire at the end of the RTs. We analyzed the individual groups.
Results: The results of the qualitative analysis indicate that the participants independently provide input and that RTs are a presentation method in which the participants can learn and become aware of information. The RT is a presentation method in which participants independently provide input, and empowerment is achieved in RTs through listening and conversing.
Conclusion: The RT has a different advantage from conventional oral presentations or poster presentation, and can be used effectively for successful conferences (e.g., Health Conference) . The RT is an announcement method that presents new possibilities.

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