Niigata Journal of Health and Welfare
Online ISSN : 2435-8088
Print ISSN : 1346-8782
Volume 20, Issue 2
Displaying 1-5 of 5 articles from this issue
Invited review artice
  • Yasuyuki Nishihara
    2020 Volume 20 Issue 2 Pages 45-60
    Published: 2020
    Released on J-STAGE: May 13, 2021
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    This article reviews research in particular, classic research on embodied knowledge, with a focus on body interactions and body techniques. In sports science, research on the body has been conducted in the areas of exercise physiology, anatomy, biomechanics, nutrition, kinesiology, sports medicine, sports culture, sports psychology, and education. However, few articles have summarized research on the body's tacit knowledge. In today's inorganic society filled with excess materials and information it is important to rethink embodied knowledge to guide research on the body.

    Research on body interactions began with studies of whether such interactions are inherited (innate) or acquired and then shifted to semiotics. Recent mainstream research has tended to focus on practical body interactions using fieldwork methodologies. By contrast, research on body techniques began with studies on the tool–body relationship, eventually turning to studies of behaviors and habits in daily life. However, research on embodied knowledge has not been actively conducted since 2000. Future research should focus on the relationship between the body's transcendence due to the development of information technology, globalization and the body as a reality in localism.

Original article
  • Naohiko Kinoshita, Ryona Hada, Senka Watanabe, Akie Suzuki, Masayuki T ...
    2020 Volume 20 Issue 2 Pages 61-72
    Published: 2020
    Released on J-STAGE: May 13, 2021
    JOURNAL FREE ACCESS FULL-TEXT HTML

    The per-capita medical expenditures of elderly persons aged 75 years and older (hereafter, ME75) in each prefecture of western Japan and the Hokkaido area are higher than those in each of the eastern prefectures. This geographical uneven Distribution among ME75 in Japan can thus be summarized as follows: Per-capita medical expenditures among ME75 in Japan are higher in western areas than eastern areas (hereafter, WJhigh_EJlow). However, this uneven distribution has only been visually identified using a quartile map of ME75 without statistics. Further, current statistical verifications of the causes (e.g., supply and demand for medical care) are insufficient. As such, this study statistically confirmed uneven distribution among ME75 in different areas of Japan and identified the causes. Here, several specific analyses were conducted, including Fisher's exact test (hereafter, FET), bivariate Moran's I (hereafter, bi_MoI), and a quantitative analysis via multivariate regional clustering (hereafter, multi_RC) to adjust for confounding factors. All such analyses were performed using Bellcurve for Excel 3.20. Finally, a spacial_Multiple Regression Analysis (hereafter, spacial_MRA) of the GeoDa system was conducted to confirm uneven distribution, Results clearly showed a distribution of ME75 among all 47 Japanese prefectures following WJhigh_EJlow typed through multi_RC. Further, the population ratio of long-term care beds and general beds were identified as the main contributing economic medical factors via multi_RC with ME75 by spacial_MRA. The high ME75 in western Japan can be considered supporting evidence that elderly persons have high access to hospitals as required by the community-based integrated care system. On the other hand, low ME75 in eastern Japan will be evaluated because it will be considered to yield the collapse of the Japan's medical care system due to rapid rising of medical care expenditures. Therefore, further comparative studies will be necessary to determine whether the West Japan system is superior or the East Japan system is superior.

  • Hokuto Ubukata, Haruo Toda, Noriaki Murata, Fumiatsu Maeda, Haruki Abe
    2020 Volume 20 Issue 2 Pages 73-84
    Published: 2020
    Released on J-STAGE: May 13, 2021
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    To achieve effective medical education, including the orthoptic education, activities that focus on small groups have been encouraged. In accordance with this trend, interdisciplinary team of faculty instructors who often come from a variety of academic or clinical backgrounds are typically involved in providing small group instruction. While this diversity may serve to broaden students' perspectives, evaluation of student performance must remain consistent within a given class. A rubric is a scoring tool that can be used to assess student performance. One of the possible solutions is education with the rubric-based evaluation, which typically focuses on achievement and performance via the use of explicit terms or criteria. However, the full impact of rubric-based assessments and how they might be used to standardize the quality of evaluations provided by interdisciplinary team of faculty instructors still remain to be investigated. To address this issue, we compared the scores provided by four different instructors, including one who is not a certified orthoptist (CO), directed at students (n=56) performance on five practice topics that share the same rubric. There was significant inter-rater difference with respect to scoring of the same reports despite the fact that the same rubric was used throughout. On the other hand, the interaction between instructors and students was not significant. These results indicated that the standardized evaluation using rubric-based assessments was not fully successful per se whereas all four instructors scored the students fairly without bias.

  • Sasithon Sukthomya, Yoshihiro Ehara, Gulapar Srisawasdi, Atchara Suwan ...
    2020 Volume 20 Issue 2 Pages 85-112
    Published: 2020
    Released on J-STAGE: May 13, 2021
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    Supplementary material

    The purpose of this study was to collect information on foot problems, current footwear use, and indoor footwear design preferences in patients with diabetes mellitus in Thailand. This descriptive study obtained data from 539 patients with type 2 diabetes who had moderate to high risk of developing foot ulcers. A self-reported survey covering patient characteristics, foot problems, current footwear use, and preferred indoor footwear designs was conducted. The qualitative data were analyzed using descriptive statistics. Variables related to footwear design were evaluated by Spearman's rank correlation. The results showed that 55.8% (n = 301) of respondents had been diagnosed as type 2 diabetes more than 10 years. Foot complications such as numbness, calluses, and ulcers were reported by 20%–65% of respondents. Nearly half the respondents (n = 252, 46.8%) walked barefoot, 38.5% (n = 207) wore slippers or flip-flops, and 5.4% (n = 29) wore clog shoes inside the house. Slippers or flip-flops (n = 230, 42.7%), closed shoes (n = 135, 25.2%), and clog shoes (n = 99, 18.4%) were the most commonly worn outdoor footwear. The most preferred indoor footwear design preferences were easy to wear (i.e., slip-on type) (n = 424, 78.8%), breathability (n = 282, 53.7%), and a flexible upper material (n = 167, 31.8%). However, only weak correlation between the characteristics of respondents and their indoor footwear design preferences was found. These findings suggest that a large proportion of patients with type 2 diabetes walk barefoot at home most of the time, which can lead to foot ulcers. Health care professionals should emphasize the benefits of using indoor footwear and avoiding walking barefoot whenever possible. Affordable and acceptable footwear that accommodates personal preferences should be designed for patients with diabetes, particularly for indoor activities.

  • Haruo Toda, Yuko Shiga
    2020 Volume 20 Issue 2 Pages 113-126
    Published: 2020
    Released on J-STAGE: May 13, 2021
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    In education on medical- or medical-related disciplines, effective student practice is acutely important. A computer-aided practice is a possible solution for effective student practice. However, installing laboratory-made applications is troublesome and even can cause security faults. Therefore, other convenient and secure methods are preferable. HTML5, the latest web standard, includes a canvas element that can be programmed in JavaScript language for two-dimensional dynamic drawings. Most modern web browsers, which are installed on computers and mobile devices, support this standard. Utilizing this feature, the study ported the Hodgkin and Huxley membrane model simulators for personal computers or Android devices into HTML5 capable devices and tested it in a student practice and evaluated the students' acceptance for the practice. The HTML5-based simulator readily run on the preliminary testing environments and students' devices (mainly iPhones or iPads) in actual practice. However, increased student involvement through additional interactivity of the application may be required for a better understanding of the topic.

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