Objective: The study aimed to determine whether the factors at baseline were associated with low frequency in the 3 months exercise class program among middle-aged and older Japanese woman with chronic knee pain.

Methods: The study had an exploratory prospective cohort design. Participants were 92 patients (age: >50 years: 72.0±5.9) who had chronic knee pain after having undergone knee surgery or had knee osteoarthritis. The criteria of the low frequency group were said to be less than once a week, the frequency of participation in exercise classes for 3 months was less than 12 times. Logistic regression analysis was performed by comparing the predictor factors of the 92 low frequency group (n=35) and the frequent group (n=57) who participated in the 3 months exercise class to the health, physical and psychological, and demographics factors, prior to the exercise class.

Results: After health education adjustment, high body mass index (OR, 95%CI=0.75, 0.62-0.90), small Japanese knee osteoarthritis measure pain and stiffness (1.15, 1.02-1.30), low exercise self-efficacy (1.11, 1.00-1.24), high pain catastrophizing scale rumination (0.84, 0.72-0.98) and low magnification (1.46, 1.09-1.96) were found to have a relationship with the predictor of low frequency in the 3 months exercise classes.

Conclusion: The body mass index was high, future anxiety is less for less pain, but pain rumination and no exercise confident was a predictor of low frequency in the 3 months exercise class among patients with chronic knee pain.

Objective: This study aimed to determine the relationship between history of sports participation during periods of education and self-rated health status among middle-aged and elderly Japanese individuals.

Methods: This is a cross-sectional study. We used data from the 2012 SSF National Sports-Life Survey that obtained sports information on community-dwelling Japanese individuals aged ≥20 years. Information on sports participation during preschool, primary school, junior high school, high school, and college (18 to 22 years of age) was obtained. Self-rated health information was also obtained based on their current health condition. From the survey, we selected participants aged ≥30 years for our analysis. Odds ratios (ORs) were calculated using logistic regression analysis, with the history of sports participation as an explanatory variable and self-rated health status as the objective variable. ORs were adjusted for age, municipalities, body mass index, smoking, job, current sports participation, household income.

Results: A total of 1,714 subjects were analyzed (49.2% men; mean age, 53.7 years (standard deviation, 14.2 years)). The ORs between good self-rated health status and history of sports participation during preschool were 1.73 (95% confidence interval [CI], 0.63-4.75) and 2.07 (95%CI, 0.42-10.25) among men and women, respectively. The ORs for primary school, junior high school, and high school periods were close to 1.00 for both genders. During college, the ORs were 1.57 (0.98-2.53) and 2.39 (1.23-4.64) for men and women, respectively.

Conclusions: A history of sports participation during college was significantly associated with good self-rated health status among middle-aged and elderly Japanese individuals.

Objective: To elucidate the relationship between walking awareness and physical activity in female university students wearing different types of footwear.

Methods: Two different studies were performed: (Study 1) a questionnaire-based survey on the relationship between walking awareness and footwear in 471 female university students (response rate: 73.1%) and (Study 2) a study of 9 healthy female university students (mean age: 20.8 ± 0.4 years) who do not exercise regularly. In study 2, their daily steps and physical activity intensity were measured for 4 consecutive weekdays using an accelerometer, and the results were compared between those who wear sneakers (Sn group) and those who wear other types (N-Sn group).

Results: In study 1, duration of comfortable walking was significantly longer in the following order: Sneakers; Sandals; High heel shoes, and has no relation to history of exercise, current exercise habits, and others. In study 2, since the numbers of steps were: 10,969 ±3,277 steps in the Sn group and 9,591 ±2,212 steps in the N-Sn group, there was no significant difference between them. Also, no significant difference in the intensity of physical activity was found between the following groups; 3-6 METs (Metabolic equivalents), more than 6 METs, and MVPA (moderate to vigorous intensity physical activity).

Conclusion: It was elucidated that although in female university students, each of the footwear types provides individuals with a different walking awareness, the types of footwear do not affect their daily step count and physical activity intensity.

Objective: The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of lifestyle intervention by the concurrent use of LINE and an accelerometer on daily steps.

Methods: Fourteen healthy college students (male: n = 6, female: n = 8, 22.0 ± 0.1 years) participated in this study. As preliminary test, all participants were asked to wear an accelerometer for one week, in order to grasp their daily steps. After that, participants were assigned to recording paper group (R group, n = 7) and LINE intervention group (L group, n = 7) while considering daily steps and gender ratio. The intervention periods were two weeks. All participants were required to wear the accelerometer, check their daily steps in the day, and set target steps each day until morning (AM 10:30) during intervention. Participants in R group were asked to record their previous and target steps on the paper. In contrast, participants in L group were asked to inform the researcher them using LINE. Moreover, L group were commented and fed back the data about their daily steps from the researcher every day. After two weeks of intervention, all participants answered questionnaire about their lifestyle intervention.

Results: Although no significant interaction of group and time was detected (p = 0.642), the daily steps at Week 2 were significantly greater than those at preliminary test (changes in daily steps, R group: 2,900 ± 868 steps/day, L group: 1,129 ± 650 steps/day, p = 0.036).

Conclusion: Inform the daily steps to other people using LINE might play one of useful strategy to increase physical activity as well as recording paper by oneself.