In the rural area of Nepal, lifestyle-related non-communicable diseases (NCDs) are emerging in recent days. We piloted a program model (2017-2019) to protect people from lifestyle-related diseases in a remote village of Kaski district where the health facilities are limited. This program was supported by Japan International Corporation Agency. We aimed to initiate a simple model of health monitoring to reduce the risks of lifestyle-related diseases. Health monitoring (blood pressure and body weight measurement) together with peer education regarding lifestyle-related disease was conducted by trained volunteers on regular bases. One-group pre-test–post-test research design was used to measure the impact of the program on the 104 participants with the age ranging 52±8.99 years in female and 57±7.38 years in male, sampled from the 100 households in the target village, Gairegaon. The double burden of underweight and overweight was observed in the programming community. After the program was conducted for one year, the percentage of people who is in the normal body mass index (BMI) range was significantly increased from 68.2% to 75.9% in total. Similarly, the ratio of normal blood pressure rose up significantly from 40.4% to 59.6%. This program results suggested that the community-led capability approach works effectively with locally affordable cost to change the behavior of people to reduce the risk of lifestyle-related diseases.

Tree health assessment of Cerasus species during the flowering season: a case study of Japanese mountain cherry (Cerasus jamasakura (Siebold ex Koidz.) H. Ohba var. jamasakura) in Yoshinoyama,

Katsuji and KOJIMA, Tamao : Effect of sunlight condition determined by terrain on tree health of Japanese mountain cherry (Cerasus jamasakura (Siebold ex Koidz.) H. Ohba var. jamasakura) in Yoshinoyama, Nara Prefecture, Japan.Abstract : We studied effect of sunlight condition determined by terrain on tree health of Cerasus jamasakura (Siebold ex Koidz.) H. Ohba var. jamasakura in Yoshinoyama, Nara Prefecture, Japan. We selected 286 trees of C. jamasakura from the data of Nara Prefecture from 1993 to 1994 and analyzed it using a generalized additive model with tree health (good or no good) as an objective variable, and age class, accumulated amount of solar radiation during growing season and topographic wetness index as explanatory variables. As a result, old-age tree and solar radiation were statistically significant. C. jamasakura had tendency in an unhealthy state at sunny locations. It was considered that low water retention ability of soil promotes soil dryness at the level that adversely affects plants. It was indicated that north slopes where soil dryness is alleviated once were selected as planting sites for C. jamasakura at Yoshinoyama.