NEWS

We published a new paper from International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health.

Abstract

Evidence suggests that socioeconomically disadvantaged children may experience a greater increase in overweight risk during macroeconomic downturns. We examined whether inequalities in the risk of overweight between Japanese children from single- and two-parent households increased after the 2008 global financial crisis. We used data from ten waves (2001 to 2011) of a nationwide longitudinal survey following all Japanese children born within 2 weeks in 2001 (boys: n = 15,417, girls: n = 14,245). Child overweight was defined according to age- and sex-specific cut-offs for Body Mass Index (BMI). Interaction between a binary measure of crisis onset (September 2008) and single-parent status was assessed using generalized estimating equation models. Covariates included baseline household income and income loss during the crisis. Girls from single-parent households showed a greater increase in the odds of overweight after crisis onset (adjusted odds ratio (AOR), 1.23; 95% confidence interval (CI), 1.04–1.46) compared to girls from households with two parents, regardless of household financial status. A similar though statistically non-significant trend was observed among boys (AOR, 1.10; 95% CI, 0.92–1.30). Child overweight risk by single-parent status may increase during macroeconomic downturns, at least among girls. Financial aid to single-parent households may not suffice to redress this gap.

Koichiro Shiba and Naoki Kondo. The Global Financial Crisis and Overweight among Children of Single Parents: A Nationwide 10-Year Birth Cohort Study in Japan. Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2019, 16(6), 1001;
doi: 10.3390/ijerph16061001

We published a new paper from International Journal of Environmental Health Research.

ABSTRACT

One possible predictive factor that affects both pro-environmental behavior and health behavior is health consciousness (a psychological state where an individual is aware of and involved in his/her health condition). We examined the relationship between health consciousness and two pro-environmental behaviors (recycling and green purchasing) within health professionals in a Japanese large hospital.Multivariate linear regression analysis revealed a significant association between health consciousness and recycling behavior, while there was no association between health consciousness and green purchasing behavior. We assume that health consciousness can certainly be a factor promoting pro-environmental behavior, but that it may have been insufficient to cause green purchasing, because of the organizational norm of recycling in the Japanese context. Given that there is previous evidence about the relationship between health consciousness and health behavior, health consciousness might be a predictive factor that encourages both health behavior and pro-environmental behavior simultaneously.

Shimoda, A., Hayashi, H., Sussman, D., Nansai, K., Fukuba, I., Kawachi, I., & Kondo, N. (2019). Our health, our planet: a cross-sectional analysis on the association between health consciousness and pro-environmental behavior among health professionals. International journal of environmental health research.
https://doi.org/10.1080/09603123.2019.1572871

We published a new paper from Appetite.

Abstract

Functional foods are promoted as products that provide specific health benefits beyond basic nutrition. While a number of studies show that the motivation behind the purchase of such products is oriented towards health concerns, we argue that consumers’ choice of functional food can also be driven by less health-related hedonic or social motives, such as a tendency for indulgence vs. self-control or the motivation to impress and show off.

This proposition has not been systematically and empirically tested before. Hence, the aim of the present study is to reveal the relationship between conspicuous consumption, perceived self-control motivation, susceptibility to descriptive normative influence and the consumption of functional foods.

Our results (N = 900) suggest that conspicuous consumption and susceptibility to descriptive normative influence are positively associated with functional food distinctiveness evaluation while perceived self-control motivation is negatively associated with such evaluation. Moreover, results further revealed the indirect effects of susceptibility to descriptive normative influence, conspicuous consumption and perceived self-control motivation on self-reported purchase rates of functional foods via the functional food distinctiveness evaluation.

The findings support the relevance of social and hedonic motives for policy makers and marketers in the functional foods industry for marketing and health promotion.

Barauskaite, D., Gineikiene, J., Auruskeviciene, V., Fennis, B. M., Yamaguchi, M., & Kondo, N. (2018). Eating healthy to impress: How conspicuous consumption, perceived self-control motivation, and descriptive normative influence determine functional food choices. Appetite.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.appet.2018.08.015

We published a new paper from Journal of Youth Studies.

ABSTRACT
Despite policy efforts to increase adolescent happiness, their impact has been unsatisfactory. Their limited impact may be rooted from a discrepancy between values that adolescents pursued and those that the policies were based on.

To provide policy implications, our study aims to identify prevailing values for South Korean, Japanese, and Chinese adolescents and to examine the relationship between the values and self-rated happiness (SRH). A cross-sectional study was conducted using survey data collected on approximately 2000 middle and high school students (7th to 12th school grade) from each country in 2008.

Firstly, an explanatory factor analysis was conducted to identify salient adolescent values from each country. Subsequently, a multiple logistic regression analysis was conducted for each population group to examine the relationship between the identified values and adolescent SRH after controlling for sociodemographic characteristics.

We found that benevolence and altruism were positively associated with adolescent SRH in all three population groups. Patriarchy was associated with SRH positively in Chinese yet inversely in Japanese. Success pursuit was inversely associated with SRH in Korean.

Policy efforts based on values of communities or social harmony may benefit adolescents’ SRH in these three countries.

Heo, J., Lin, S. F., Kondo, N., Hwang, J., Lee, J. K., & Oh, J. (2018). Values and happiness among Asian adolescents: a cross-national study. Journal of Youth Studies, 1-16.
https://doi.org/10.1080/13676261.2018.1513640

We published a new paper from Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health.

Abstract
Background
Income inequalities have risen from the 1990s to 2000s, following the economic recession in 1994, but little research has investigated socioeconomic inequalities in suicide mortality for working-age men and women (aged between 30 and 64 years) over the time using longitudinal data in Sweden.

Methods
Using Swedish national register data between 1990 and 2007 as a series of repeated cohort studies with a 3-year follow-up (sample sizes were approximately 3.7 to 4.0 million in each year), relative and slope indices of inequality (RII and SII respectively) based on quintiles of individual disposable income were calculated and tested for temporal trends.

Results
SII for the risk of suicide mortality ranged from 27.6 (95% CI 19.5 to 35.8) to 44.5 (36.3 to 52.6) in men and 5.2 (0.2 to 10.4) to 16.6 (10.7 to 22.4) in women (per 100 000 population). In men, temporal trends in suicide inequalities were stable in SII but increasing in RII by 3% each year (p=0.002). In women, inequalities tended to increase in both RII and SII, especially after the late-1990s, with 10% increment in RII per year (p<0.001).

Conclusions
Despite universal social security and generous welfare provision, income inequalities in suicide were considerable and have widened, especially in women. The steeper rise in women may be partially related to higher job insecurity and poorer working conditions in the female dominated public sector after the recession. To reduce health consequences following an economic crisis and widened income inequalities, additional measures may be necessary in proportion to the levels of financial vulnerability.

Hiyoshi, A., Kondo, N., & Rostila, M. (2018). Increasing income-based inequality in suicide mortality among working-age women and men, Sweden, 1990–2007: is there a point of trend change?. J Epidemiol Community Health, jech-2018.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1136/jech-2018-210696

We published a press release (August 9th, 2018).

We published a new paper from Asia Pacific Journal of Public Health.

Abstract
We investigated cross-sectional associations between social support and access to health care among older Japanese people. From larger cohort datasets of community-dwelling people aged 65 years or older, 23 079 respondents were extracted. We summarized patterns of social support by gender and age group, then analyzed associations between social support and the experience of unmet health care needs, as a negative indicator of access. Adjusting for socioeconomic factors, multiple logistic regression identified that respondents who received instrumental support were less likely to experience unmet health care needs except males aged 65 to 69 years. The effect of receiving instrumental social support was larger than for household income and similar to anxiety about unexpected expenses. In the low-income group, these findings were highlighted among females aged 65 to 69 years and males aged 70 years and older. In addition to redistribution of financial resources, facilitating suitable social support may contribute to alleviating the access gap among older people.

Michiyo Higuchi, Kayo Suzuki, Toyo Ashida, Naoki Kondo, and Katsunori Kondo. “Social Support and Access to Health Care Among Older People in Japan: Japan Gerontological Evaluation Study (JAGES).” Asia Pacific Journal of Public Health (2018)
https://doi.org/10.1177/1010539518786516

We published a new paper from European Journal of Public Health.

Abstract
Background
Universal school lunch programmes are expected to cover all children equally, compared with selective programmes that may stigmatize socially vulnerable children. However, the effectiveness of universal programmes in closing dietary disparity has not been empirically proven. We evaluated whether Japan’s universal school lunch programmes contribute to a reduction in the socioeconomic status (SES)-related gradient in fruit and vegetable intakes.

Methods
We analyzed data for 719 school children aged 6–12 years in a population-based survey conducted in the greater Tokyo metropolitan area. We measured dietary intakes using a validated self-administered brief diet history questionnaire for young children (BDHQ-10 y). We assessed parental education, annual household income and maternal employment status as SES indicators of children. We used multiple regression to estimate mean fruit and vegetable intakes by parental education and household income, and the contribution of school lunch to reducing the SES-related gradient in fruit and vegetable intakes.

Results
Compared with children with high maternal education (>15 years), those with low maternal education (<13 years) had less vegetable intake by 22.3 g/1000 kcal (95% confidence interval = 12.5, 32.2) and less fruit intake by 7.5 g/1000 kcal (95% confidence interval = −2.4, 17.3). However, fruit and vegetable intakes from school lunch did not vary by SES, indicating that school lunch intake alleviated the SES-related gradient of total vegetable intake by 9.9% and that of fruit intake by 3.4%.

Conclusions
Universal school lunch programmes can partially contribute to a reduction in the SES-related gradient in dietary intakes.

Mai Yamaguchi, Naoki Kondo, Hideki Hashimoto. Universal school lunch programme closes a socioeconomic gap in fruit and vegetable intakes among school children in Japan. European Journal of Public Health, 2018 Mar 26. doi: 10.1093/eurpub/cky041.

We published a new paper from Journal of Epidemiology.

Abstract
Background: We explored the distinct trajectories of functional decline among older adults in Japan, and evaluated whether the frequency of outings, an important indicator of social activity, predicts the identified trajectories.

Methods: We analyzed data on 2,364 adults aged 65 years or older from the Japan Aichi Gerontological Evaluation Study. Participants were initially independent and later developed functional disability during a 31-month follow-up period. We used the level of long-term care needs certified in the public health insurance system as a proxy of functional ability and linked the fully tracked data of changes in the care levels to the baseline data. A low frequency of outings was defined as leaving one’s home less than once per week at baseline. We applied a growth mixture model to identify trajectories in functional decline by sex and then examined the association between the frequency of outings and the identified trajectories using multinomial logistic regression analysis.

Results: Three distinct trajectories were identified: “slowly declining” (64.3% of men and 79.7% of women), “persistently disabled” (4.5% and 3.7%, respectively), and “rapidly declining” (31.3% and 16.6%, respectively). Men with fewer outings had 2.14 times greater odds (95% confidence interval, 1.03–4.41) of being persistently disabled. The association between outing frequency and functional decline trajectory was less clear statistically among women.

Conclusions: While the majority of older adults showed a slow functional decline, some showed persistent moderate disability. Providing more opportunities to go out or assistance in that regard may be important for preventing persistent disability, and such needs might be greater among men.

Saito, J., Kondo, N., Saito, M., Takagi, D., Tani, Y., Haseda, M., Tabuchi, T. & Kondo, K. (2018). Exploring 2.5-Year Trajectories of Functional Decline in Older Adults by Applying a Growth Mixture Model and Frequency of Outings as a Predictor: A 2010–2013 JAGES Longitudinal Study. Journal of Epidemiology, JE20170230.
https://doi.org/10.2188/jea.JE20170230

Our new paper identified the increased overweight risks among elementary school children who have been living in emergency temporary housing after the 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake. After the 2011 disaster, there are many children who are still residing in temporary housing.

Obesity in elementary school children after the Great East Japan Earthquake

Authors
Hidenori Moriyama,
Toru Fuchimukai,
Naoki Kondo,
John I Takayama

The paper was published from Pediatrics International.  DOI: 10.1111/ped.13468

Asia Pacific Observatory on Health Systems and Policies published Japan health system review.

This is the latest Health in Transition (HiT) report of Japan.

The review can be downloaded for free here.

Japan health system review was written by:
Haruka Sakamoto, The University of Tokyo
Mizanur Rahman, The University of Tokyo
Shuhei Nomura, The University of Tokyo
Etsuji Okamoto, University of Fukuchiyama
Soichi Koike, Jichi Medical University
Hideo Yasunaga, The University of Tokyo
Norito Kawakami, The University of Tokyo
Hideki Hashimoto, The University of Tokyo
Naoki Kondo, The University of Tokyo
Sarah Krull Abe, The University of Tokyo
Matthew Palmer, The University of Tokyo
Cyrus Ghaznavi, The University of Tokyo

and edited by:
Kenji Shibuya, The University of Tokyo
Stuart Gilmour, The University of Tokyo
Kozo Tatara, Japan Public Health Association