[in Japanese]

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The purpose of our research was to clarify the process of community sustainability (for our research, this is defined as citizen-based wellbeing and motivation towards self-management through the awareness of specific community and health issues) and to examine the roles of administrative public health professionals and related entities through the implementation of elderly outreach programs in rapidly aging "Town K". For our methods, elderly outreach programs were objectively evaluated in "Town K", where the authors had previous connections. Specifically, interviews were conducted on public health nurses of "Town K", society welfare workers, and the recreational guidance staff associated with the project. Based on the gathered information, the authors categorized the program development process into 4 stages (Introductory Stage, Transitional Stage, Active Stage, and Progressive Stage) and these data along with the roles of the third party entities were assessed and evaluated. As a result, the role of "Town K" public health nurses within the program was found to be encouragement of self-sustainability among citizens and promotion of a socially and transformatively functioning community. The role of the social welfare society was to raise awareness among members of the community as a whole in matters concerning health issues. Finally, the role of the recreational guidance staff was to empower the citizens through communication and constructive motivation. Through our research, clarification of the role of public health professionals and related entities in the process of community sustainability was achieved, and the approach to measures for elderly care became evident.

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The medical consumer gains access to information on the causes of diseases, cures, and improvement of QOL from various information resources. However, in terms of quality, it is difficult to identify reliable medical information from all the available information. Moreover, it is also difficult to find information on the improvement of QOL. In this study, the organization of information for medical consumers is reconsidered, and a model for reconstructing and offering information on the causes of diseases, medical treatment, and improvement of QOL from a medical consumer's viewpoint is proposed. The framework of the information demand of medical consumers is clarified by combining publicly accessible information and information that medical consumers look for. We found that medical consumers acquire knowledge on the natural history of ulcerative colitis in five phases in the following order : baseline knowledge, information on the complication of the disease, on medical treatment, on relief of symptoms, and on the improvement of QOL. The contents of information were arranged according to these stages, and an information support model that provides the contents through the resources was proposed. A feature of this model is that it presents information in an intelligible format, and it presents information in terms of its content rather than its resource. The available essential information that is incomprehensible to a consumer is made comprehensible through this model. Since the entire system of contents is in keeping with a consumer's understanding and since information on natural history is arranged in a systematic manner, it is possible to improve the visibility of information. That is, a consumer is guided in acquiring information from the resources. This is useful in the next phase when consumers access the contents according to the course of disease.

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In this research, in order to clarify psychological influences on obesity of adult workers and adolescent students, the authors investigated the eating behavior by using Japanese version of Dutch Eating Behavior Questionnaire developed by Van Strein et al. (1986) (hereinafter shortened as DEBQ). DEBQ is classified into three scales as emotional eating, restrained eating and external eating. We discussed the relationship of BMI with the three scales of DEBQ and with the difference between the sexes. The number of adult workers was 602 and their average age was 32.9 (SD 7.48). The number of students was 705 and their average age was 17.4 (SD 1.56). The result of factor analysis certified that the value of DEBQ scales of adult workers agreed with that of the original one and that of students nearly agreed with it. The three scales of DEBQ, that is, external eating, restrained eating and emotional eating were confirmed. As for the relationship between DEBQ scales and BMI, the obese adult workers showed a high value in restrained eating, and the obese students showed a high value in restrained eating but a low value in external eating. The males of both adult workers and adolescent students showed a higher value in BMI, while the females showed a higher value in external eating, restrained eating and emotional eating.

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The Oromia State of Ethiopia, arid or semi-arid basin, receives little rainfall and has an uneven seasonal distribution of rainfall. As a result, the region has a low crop yield as well as a shortage of life water, which may be expected to cause health disorders among residents. The quality of life water in this area has not yet been investigated in sufficient detail, nor has the health of residents been studied to any notable extent. We therefore measured the fluoride concentration of life water in this area, and investigated the health of residents of three districts where the water under investigation was being used, namely the Anano, Dodota, and Garbi Districts. The results showed that the water used in some areas had a fluoride level exceeding 2 mg/L, the level at which dental abnormalities may occur. The fluoride concentration in well water in the Garbi District was 7.7 mg/L, and 38.2% of children aged ≤2 years in this district had yellow-brown mottled teeth that were attributed to dental fluorosis. Many farmers were underweight with lower body weights and muscle mass than Japanese individuals, and some children had abdominal distension indicative of kwashiorkor. These signs were attributed to malnutrition, specifically protein deficiency.

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Breast milk constitutes the sole food source for infants, containing nearly all of the nutrients, including protein, required for growth. The protein and other nutritional content of breast milk show wide individual variation and fluctuate greatly throughout the breast-feeding period. However, conventional methods of measuring total protein content require high-volume breast milk samples and results take time to obtain due to the complicated procedure. This creates difficulties in measuring the protein content of an individual's breast milk at a specific point in time. The dry chemistry method, as used for serum component analysis, enables measurement of multiple components, including proteins, in tens of minutes. Application of this assay system to the measurement of protein content in breast milk would allow simple, rapid assay of low-volume samples. In order to investigate the utility of the dry chemistry method for rapid measurement of protein in low-volume breast milk, the protein content of 64 breast milk samples were measured using the dry chemistry and Kjeldahl methods and compared. A strong correlation was observed between protein content measured using the dry chemistry method and that measured with the Kjeldahl method (y=0.9267x+0.5421, r=0.968, p<0.05). The present findings indicate that the dry chemistry method can be used as a simple assay of protein content in low-volume breast milk samples.

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