Objectives: To examine the validity and reproducibility of a self-administered foodfrequency questionnaire (FFQ) used for two cohort studies in Japan. Design: Cross-sectional study. Setting: Two rural towns in the Miyagi Prefecture, in north-eastern Japan. Subjects: Fifty-five men and 58 women. Results: A 40-item FFQ was administered twice, 1 year apart. In the mean time, four 3-day diet records (DRs) were collected in four seasons within the year. We calculated daily consumption of total energy and 15 nutrients, 40 food items and nine food groups from the FFQs and the DRs. We computed Spearman correlation coefficients between the FFQs and the DRs. With adjustment for age, total energy and deattenuation for measurement error with the DRs, the correlation coefficients for nutrient intakes ranged from 0.25 to 0.58 in men and from 0.30 to 0.69 in women, with median of 0.43 and 0.43, respectively. Median (range) of the correlation coefficients was 0.35 (2 0.30 to 0.72) in men and 0.34 (2 0.06 to 0.75) in women for food items and 0.60 (20.10 to 0.76) and 0.51 (0.28 -0.70) for food groups, respectively. Median (range) of the correlation coefficients for the two FFQs administered 1 year apart was 0.49 (0.31-0.71) in men and 0.50 (0.40-0.64) in women for nutrients, 0.43 (0.14 -0.76) and 0.45 (0.06-0.74) respectively for food items, and 0.50 (0.30 -0.70) and 0.57 (0.39-0.66) respectively for food groups. Relatively higher agreement percentages for intakes of nutrients and food groups with high validity were obtained together with lower complete disagreement percentages. Conclusions: The FFQ has a high reproducibility and a reasonably good validity, and is useful in assessing the usual intakes of nutrients, foods and food groups among a rural Japanese population.

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No abstract

BACKGROUND.Although studies have shown the usefulness of improving health professionals' communication skills by training, to the authors' knowledge none have demonstrated the efficacy of communication skill training (CST) for health professionals in terms of improving patient outcomes. This study aimed to assess the efficacy of CST for nurses in improving psychologic distress and coping among patients after being informed of a cancer diagnosis.METHODS.Nurses who mainly provide patients with psychologic and informational support after being informed of their cancer diagnosis by physicians at a cancer screening center were randomly assigned to either an experimental or a control group; patients were supported by either group of nurses. Patient selection criteria were: age >18 years with gastric, colorectal, or breast cancer that was not in advanced stage. Intervention consisted of 3 1‐on‐1 nurses' interviews (on the day of, 1 week after, and 1 month after diagnosis). Efficacy was assessed through patients' psychologic distress and coping by administering the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS) and Mental Adjustment to Cancer scale (MAC), at 3 time points (1 week, 1 month, and 3 months after diagnosis).RESULTS.Eighty‐nine patients participated. Repeated measures analysis of variance demonstrated a significant group‐by‐time decrease in patients' psychologic distress on HADS (P = .03), and significant group‐by‐time increase in fighting spirit and decrease of fatalism (P = .01 and P = .04, respectively), in addition to significant between‐group difference of anxious preoccupation on the MAC (P = .003).CONCLUSIONS.Support by nurses who completed the CST program was found to reduce psychologic distress and improved coping long term among patients informed of their cancer diagnosis. Cancer 2008. © 2008 American Cancer Society.

Objectives: To determine the relative contribution of intra-and inter-individual variation in the consumption of foods and nutrients. Design: Cross-sectional study. Setting: Two rural towns in the Miyagi Prefecture, a northeastern part of Japan. Subjects: Fifty-nine men and sixty women. Methods: Four 3-d food records were collected in four seasons within a year. The total variance in the consumption of 15 nutrient variables and 16 food groups was partitioned by analysis of variance into its interand intra-individual components, separately for men and women. Results: The ratio of the intra-to inter-individual variance was larger than unity in 87% (13a15) of the nutrients in men and 100% (15a15) in women. The ratio was largest for retinol (52.9 in men and I in women) and smallest for carbohydrates (0.8 in men and 1.5 in women). The ratio was larger than unity in 88% (14a16) of the food groups in men and 94% (15a16) in women, which was smallest for cereals (0.6 in men and 0.9 in women). Conclusions:The results were consistent with previous western studies in that intra-individual variation was generally larger than inter-individual variation for the consumption of both foods and nutrients.