Objectives: This study was conducted to assess the relationships between behavior, the time spent on using the internet, body condition and food intake in a private high school.

Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted for 10th grade students (108 boys, 98 girls). A self-administrated questionnaire was used to assess the students' behavior (time spent on using the internet, wakeup and bedtime, sleep time, appetite and other subjective symptoms). A brief self-administered diet history questionnaire was also used to grasp the usual dietary content. Based on data about the time spent on using the internet, the students were stratified into three groups (SG, short time group, less than 2 hours; MG, middle time group, more than 2 but less than 4 hours; and LG, long time group, more than 4 hours), which were then compared.

Results: The SG, MG, LG rates for internet usage were 35.2%, 45.4%, 19.4% in the boys, and 23.5%, 53.0%, 23.5% in the girls. The number of subjective symptoms was significantly higher in the LG groups (both boys and girls), compared with the SG groups. The boys in the LG group consumed more soft drinks, compared with the SG group. The girls in the SG and LG groups consumed more food than the MG group.

Conclusions: The time spent on using the internet was associated with daily body conditions overall, and with the intake of soft drinks in the boys. However, no related differences were shown in the girls.

Objective: This study aimed to focus on mothers' feelings of irritation and clarify factors affecting their inappropriate coping behaviors when their children exhibit negative emotions such as crying or getting fussy.

Methods: We conducted an anonymous self-administered questionnaire survey from April to July 2017 among mothers with children aged 1 to 6 years who were enrolled in one of three facilities: a suburban kindergarten, an urban kindergarten, and an urban nursery school. We excluded invalid replies from the 687 mothers (recovery rate: 57.3%) and analyzed the 444 mothers. The difficulty in raising children, mother's cognitive styles, help-seeking preferences, cognitions of persecution, and feelings of irritation were scored and analyzed by multiple regression analysis.

Results: Mothers' feelings of irritation and children's ages were the factors that directly influenced mothers' inappropriate coping behaviors against negative emotional expressions of their children. Factors affecting their feelings of irritation were the difficulty in raising children and perfectionism. In particular, cognitions of persecution and perfectionism tended to increase feelings of irritation and lead to inappropriate coping behaviors.

Conclusions: Feelings of irritation existed between mothers' cognitive factors and their inappropriate coping behaviors. Also indicated was that feelings of irritation heightened by cognitions of persecution and cognitive style of perfectionism tended to lead to inappropriate coping behaviors. It is important to consider the intervention methods based on cognitive traits so that mothers can control their feelings of irritation.

Objective: To identify the characteristics of parents cooking with their children at home.

Methods: We conducted a cross-sectional survey using a self-reported questionnaire on 312 parents having third/fourth-grade children at two elementary schools in Tokyo, in 2017. We examined the frequency of cooking with their children at home with subjective items. Those who cooked frequently or occasionally and those who cooked seldom or never were classified as high and low parent-child cooking frequency groups, respectively. We examined differences between both groups in attributes, margins, frequency of using ready-to-eat meals, confidence in cooking skills, cooking attitudes, and perceptions of child cooking using chi-squared test, and characteristics using logistic regression analysis.

Results: 255 parents completed the questionnaires. 155 (45.1%) and 140 (54.9%) parents were classified as high and low parent-child cooking frequency groups, respectively. Besides child's gender, confidence in cooking skills, cooking attitudes (2 items, e.g., "cooking is fun"), and perceptions of child cooking (4 items, e.g., "my child can cook one dish alone") showed significant differences between both groups. Many parents in the high frequency group enjoyed cooking (OR 2.04 [1.06, 3.93]), didn't think cooking is troublesome (OR 2.60 [1.42, 4.75]), thought it was important to cook with their children at home (OR 11.1 [1.22, 100]), and their children could cook one dish alone (OR 5.40 [2.91, 10.0]).

Conclusions: The subjective frequency of parents cooking with children at home was related to their child's gender, confidence in cooking skills, cooking attitude, and perceptions of child cooking.

Objective: This study aimed to examine the effect of message framing on colorectal cancer screening in Japan.

Methods: The study enrolled 788 participants aged 40 to 74 years who were members of the National Health Insurance Society. The participants belonged to 26 branches/clusters, which were divided into two groups that were then provided with two kinds of leaflets with different messages. One (group A) emphasized the ease and low cost of examination, whereas the other (group B) emphasized the risk of colorectal cancer and health impact. The primary outcome was the collection rate of fecal occult blood test kits. Logistic regression analysis was used to calculate the odds ratio of the collection rate by two different messages after adjusting for age, sex, and other potential confounders.

Results: No significant differences were seen in the age, sex and history of health checkup attendance between the two groups. The significant difference in the collection rate was not recognized (group A: 22.6%, group B: 26.0%, P=0.278). Similar results were obtained in the multivariate analysis.

Conclusion: Differences in message framing showed no distinct effects on colorectal cancer screening. However, the entire collection rate of fecal occult blood test kits in both groups increased after the distribution of leaflets. Further studies are needed to assess the effect of message framing on colorectal cancer screening.

Objective: Gero city got the "Smart Life Project Award (Let's extend healthy life expectancy!)" by MHLW in 2019 for the community-based salt reduction action. This article aimed to show the uniqueness of its program and future directions.

Project contents: Until not too long ago, Gero city had some of the highest percentages of citizens with high blood pressure (37.1%) and cerebrovascular disease (10.1%) in all of Gifu prefecture. Since 2017, however, the percentages have decreased to 36.7% and 8.4%, respectively. To bring about this change, health workers in Gero city decided not to focus solely on the diseases, but also to promote healthy eating habits among healthy looking citizens as well, in both the public and private sectors. The Sodium Reduction Promotion Committee was then formed to promote lower sodium diet. They first implemented enlightenment activities to raise awareness about high salt intake in schools, volunteer organizations, and other health-related facilities. Next, they strongly promoted to make low sodium foods visible in supermarkets and shops to enhance their consumption.

Future directions: Focusing only on the diseases was not enough to improve the health of the community. By working with diverse stakeholders of the community in various public and private places, Gero city improved in overall community health. These steps are just the beginning, and to give our children a healthy future, Gero city will continue to make every effort to this program so that all may live long and healthy lives.