Objective: Subjective health views, health beliefs, and health behaviors were assessed to help establish a health education program for preschool children. Subjects: The subjects were preschool children (46 boys, 44 girls) who went to a Hended public nurseries. Methods: Children were interviewed for about 10 minutes and were asked to describe their subjective health views using the words “genki” and “genki-denai”. At the same time, a simple Health Locus of Control technique for preschoolers, which was devised for this study was employed to assess the subjects health beliefs. Results: The findings showed that 86% of preschool children did not understand the word “health”. The subjective health views of 5 and 6-year-old children according to perceptions of 'genki' and 'not genki' were assessed. Factors including < activities >< life events > < human relations > and < emotions > represented 'genki', and < physical aspects > represented 'not genki'. Regarding the methodology to assess children's health beliefs, the simple HLC technique for preschoolers may be useful for subjects limited in written language. Concerning children's health coping behaviors for hunger, fatigue and cold, two marked tendencies were observed as follows: active coping behavior and tolerate coping behavior. A total of 11% of children indicated tolerate coping behaviors in two or more out of three coping behaviors. Moreover, examination of children with more than two tolerate coping behaviors showed that the female gender, internal HLC, human relations and emotional tendencies were identified as influential factors. Furthermore, orders of importance regarding influential factors on tolerate coping behaviors were presented as 'not genki', 'genki', HLC, and gender. Children's subjective health behaviors, HLC and health coping behaviors were considered to be correlated. In conclusion, the findings indicated an effective method of appropriate health education for preschool children.

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I examined the rapid vasomotor action of HDL on excised, precontracted porcine coronary artery strips. HDL (500 μg protein/ml) isolated from human plasma were applied to strips precontracted with 6μM prostaglandin (PG) F_2α. Contractions induced by PGF_2α spontaneously declined by 4.0±0.4% (n=22) and 9.8±1.3% (n =5) at 30 and 50 min, respectively. When HDL was applied at 30 min, relaxation of the coronary strips at 50 min was significantly enhanced to 17.4±1.2% (n=7). Decreased strip tension elicited by HDL was significantly larger than the control throughout the 20 min test period. The role of endothelium in the HDL-induced vasomotor response was determined by examining the effect of HDL on coronary artery strips denuded of endothelium. The total decline in tension over the entire course of the 50 min test period was 10.2±2.7% (n=4) in the absence of HDL and 10.8±2.6% (n=4) in the presence of HDL. Thus, HDL failed to affect PGF_2α - induced contraction in the endothelium-denuded arterial strips. Addition of NG - monomethyl- L- arginine (L-NMMA, 300 μM) 10 min before PGF_2α caused a small immediate increase in resting tension (5.8±0.7%) and increased the peak amplitudes of PGF_2α-induced contractions by 33.8±7.8% (n=10). L-NMMA, however, did not affect either the time-dependent decline in PGF_2α- induced tension or HDL-induced relaxation. Strip tension declined by 5.6±0.8% (n=10) at 30 min, and total relaxation during the 50 min test period was 10.0±1.2% (n=6) in the absence of HDL and 17.6±2.5% (n=4) in the presence of HDL. The extent of relaxation was similar to that without L-NMMA. To examine the contribution of endothelium-derived prostanoids to HDL-induced relaxation, coronary artery strips were pretreated with indomethacin (10 μ M; IM) for 10 min prior to the addition of PGF_2α. IM caused a slow decline in the resting tension (5.6±1.1%) and decreased peak amplitudes of PGF_2α-induced contraction (30.5±6.1%; n=10). The rate of increase in strip tension was also markedly slowed. The spontaneous relaxation over 50 min in the presence of IM was 6.2±2.7% (n=4). When HDL was applied to IM-treated, PGF_2α-precontracted strips, HDL no longer elicited relaxation, but instead provoked gradual increases in tension (10.5±1.9%; n= 6) which became significant within 10 min. In conclusion, native human HDL elicited endothelium-dependent vasorelaxation in porcine coronary artery strips precontracted with PGF_2α. This relaxation was abolished when cyclooxygenase was inhibited by IM. Thus, HDL may affect vasomotor tone by stabilizing endothelium-derived PGI₂.

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Purpose : We studied the influence of pregnancy and childrearing on how women check the food labels and their level of awareness regarding food additives to determine an effective method to educate mothers, the main people responsible for the health of children, on food, and in particular, choosing food products. Subjects : We gave a series of questionnaires, first to pregnant women, and then to those who answered the first questionnaire who gave birth and were raising their children. We received responses from 366 women (43.7%), and studied those of 327 (89.3%) respondents who were pregnant with their first child at the time of the first survey. Methods: We asked the mothers to fill out a questionnaire consisting of 39 items including 17 related to food additives. The questionnaires were distributed to the pregnant mothers in pre-birthchild care classes, and were returned by mail. The data was compiled and analyzed statistically with the SPSS package; the analysis followed the mothers from pregnancy to childrearing by combining data from both periods and integrating the data. We analyzed the factors involving the relationship between awareness and behavior with items over both periods (pregnancy and childrearing) using the powerful varimax rotation. We then confirmed the correlative structure of the main factor during childrearing of “checking the food label” using analysis of covariant structures. Results: The correlation between all items compared during pregnancy and during childrearing was extremely strong. The results of the factor rotation analysis found one factor “items purchased”, common to both periods, but the second and third factors differed. The analysis of covariant structures showed that “checking the label” was influenced by “concerned about it”, and that “concerned about it“ was influenced by “want to know more details ”. Conclusion : While there was a strong interest in food additives, and while those who were concerned did show a high level of label checking, only about half of all mothers studied actually checked food labels. The findings showed that it is important to strengthen concern about food by providing mothers with information concerning food additives to encourage checking food labels when shopping.

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Objective : This study was conducted to evaluate the usefulness of conventional lowfield MR imaging (MRI) as a daily clinical examination to detect and stage rectal carcinoma. Materials and Methods : The subjects were 54 patients (32 males and 22 females) who were evaluated preoperatively using a 0.5-T MR scanner and a whole-body CT scanner. For both MRI and CT, the rectum was inflated with 300-600 ml of air using a barium enema syringe before examination. For MRI examination, T1 -, T2-weighted images and gadopentetate dimeglumine (Gd-DTPA) -enhanced T1-weighted images were obtained in all patients. For CT examination, contrast-enhanced images were obtained using iopamidol in 49 patients. The chi-square test was performed for independent variables to compare the staging accuracy of MRI with that of CT. Results : Tumor depiction rate was 93.9% with CT and 94.4% with MRI. The diagnostic accuracy of tumor depth infiltration was 37.0% with CT and 56.9% with MRI and the difference between the two techniques was significant (P<0.05). The sensitivity of both modalities for diagnosis of lymph node metastasis was poor, being 15.0% for CT and 4.8% for MRI. Conclusion : The diagnostic accuracy of MRI for tumor depth infiltration was superior to that of CT, but the sensitivity for diagnosis of lymph node metastasis was poor with both modalities. The diagnostic capability of the low-field MR scanner we employed was poorer than that reported previously for a high-field MR scanner or an investigative low-field MR scanner. To improve the diagnostic capability of the low-field MR scanner, a phased-array coil and fast SE sequence should be employed.

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Purpose : Based on the results of a cohort study conducted in Tachikawa City, Tokyo in 1992 on 3-year-old children and the follow-up study in 1996 on 6-year-old children, we performed this study to clarify the characteristics of health status and lifestyle. We examined the relationship between changes over time and social factors in children who were underweight or overweight when entering the first grade of elementary school to obtain information to prevent lifestyle related disease. Subjects : The first study was conducted in 1992 using 1286 3-year-old children in Tachikawa City, Tokyo who received a regular health checkup at the Tachikawa Health Center. Of these subjects, 1148 (89.3%) responded. The follow-up study was conducted on 1360 6-year-old children who entered elementary school in Tachikawa and other cities in 1996. Of these subjects, 591 (40.5%) responded. Our analysis was based on 384 children for whom data on height and weight were available and who responded to both studies. Methods : We calculated the body mass index (BMI) from heights and weights measured at the time of both studies and examined the relationship between BMI measured at ages 3 and 6. The children were divided into three groups based on BMI : the underweight group (BMI less than 14), the normal weight group (BMI from 14 to less than 18), and the overweight group (BMI of 18 or more). We studied the relationship between lifestyle and social factors based on the parents' responses to the questionnaire on health and lifestyle and assessed the relationship between the lifestyles of children at ages 3 and 6. Results : (1) There were 31 children (8.1%) in the overweight group and 46 children (12.0%) in the underweight group among children entering the first grade of elementary school. The correlation between BMI at ages 3 and 6 was very high. However, both percentages of the groups increased from 5.7% to 8.1% in the overweight group and from 2.3% to 12.0% in the underweight group during the 3-year interval. (2) Few underweight children evaluated their health status as “very good” compared with overweight children. Moreover, compared to the normal group, more children in the overweight group ate at a fast speed, ate breakfast alone, did not have bread or milk at breakfast, and did not have snacks at a set time. The percentage of children who were an onlychild or who did not have a father was higher in the overweight group. Not many children in the underweight group had breakfast by themselves but many had a traditional Japanese breakfast of rice and miso soup, had dinner with their grandmothers, slept longer, and went to sleep later. Children in the underweight group tended not to have grandmothers who lived with them or not to have mothers who were full-time housewives. (3) The correlation between lifestyle at ages 3 and 6 was very high. Furthermore, correlations were observed among contents of breakfast, eating with others, eating time of snacks, living arrangement with grandmothers and work status of mothers. Conclusions : The percentages of children who were either underweight or overweight upon entering elementary school were higher than those in the 3-year-old children. However, a strong correlation between BMI at ages 3 and 6 and lifestyles at ages 3 and 6 was observed. These results suggest that intervention in this period may be effective to establish a healthy lifestyle for children. Moreover, intervention must be considered depending on whether or not the grandmother lives with the children or if the mother stays at home. Since more than 10% of first grades were underweight, special characteristics related to health status, lifestyle and social factors in underweight children should be further examined. The relationship between the health status and lifestyle of underweight children should be evaluated over the long-term.

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