Objective The objective of this study was to determine cancer understanding among Japanese primary and secondary school students. Methods The study design was a cross-sectional nationwide survey using a self-administered questionnaire. The prefecture with the lowest student population was set to 1, and that with the highest student population was set to 18 for elementary schools and 19 for junior high and high schools based on the ratio of the student population. In this way, 213 elementary schools, 222 junior high schools, and 208 high schools were selected from all 47 prefectures in Japan, and questionnaires were sent to each school. The questionnaire listed the names of 15 cancers and asked respondents to choose one answer from three: ''Never heard of,'' ''Heard of/ Don't understand,'' or ''Heard of/Understand.'' Results Response rates for schools were 44.1 % (n = 94) for elementary schools, 46.4 % (n = 103) for junior high schools, and 55.8 % (n = 116) for high schools. A total of 8,876 questionnaires were used for the analysis. Our survey suggests that the most commonly understood types of cancer differed by grade, with lung cancer the most commonly understood in elementary school, leukemia in junior high schools, and breast cancer in high schools. Girls tended to demonstrate greater cancer understanding than boys, with particularly large differences by gender in rates of understanding of breast and uterine cancer at each assessed grade level. Conclusions Here, we examined Japanese primary and secondary school students. Marked differences in cancer recognition by grade and gender suggest that educational efforts are needed at various grade levels and gender-specific cancer education. Further, more than 50 % of students at any school level were not familiar with most cancers. It suggests that cancer education is deficient.

BackgroundJapan has implemented various school actions during seasonal influenza outbreaks since the 1950's under the School Health Law. However, the effective duration, extent, and timing of closures remain unresolved.Materials and MethodsWe conducted a retrospective study on the relationship between elementary class closures and influenza outbreak control during four consecutive influenza seasons from the 2004-2005 to 2007-2008 school years in Joetsu, Niigata, Japan. Among a total of 1,061 classes of 72 schools, 624 cases of influenza outbreaks were documented among 61 schools.ResultsClass closures were carried out in a total of 62 cases in response to influenza outbreak, which was defined as a student absentee rate of greater than 10% due to influenza or influenza-like illness. Of these cases, two-day class closures were conducted the day after reaching a 10% student absentee rate in 28 cases and other types of closures were initiated in 34 cases. A markedly higher number of outbreak cases ended within one week for two-day class closures compared to the other types of closures (82.1% vs. 20.6%, respectively). The significant association between two-day class closures and interruption of an outbreak within one week was confirmed using a multivariable model adjusted for the season, grade, day of the week of an outbreak start, and absentee rate on the day of an outbreak start (OR, 3.18; 95% CI, 1.12–9.07; p = 0.030).ConclusionsOur results suggest that a two-day class closure carried out the day after reaching a 10% absentee rate is an effective approach for mitigating influenza outbreaks in elementary schools.

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The purpose of this study was to describe the cancer-screening intention, sources of cancer information, and cancer understanding among Japanese adolescents. A cross-sectional nationwide survey involving a self-administered questionnaire was conducted. Response rates of the target schools were 46.4 % (n = 103) for junior high schools and 55.8 % (n = 116) for high schools. From these, we analyzed the data of 2960 junior high school students (1520 males, 1440 females) and 3703 high school students (1546 males, 2157 females) to examine the association between cancer-screening intention and sources of cancer-related information and understanding. A significant association between cancer-screening intention and sources of cancer information and cancer understanding was observed. The screening intention group identified more sources of cancer information than the no-screening intention group did. Understanding about cancer was reported by a higher proportion of students in the screening intention group compared with the no-screening intention group. Recognition that healthy people must take part in cancer screening was significantly associated with screening intention in both junior high (odds ratio (OR), 1.859; 95 % confidence interval (CI), 1.582-2.185; P < 0.001) and high school (OR, 2.485; 95 % CI, 2.139-2.887; P < 0.001) students. Health education at school was indicated by a high proportion of students as a source of cancer-related information, although the association was not significant. The present survey indicated that those in of our sample who intended to undergo future cancer screening (67.8 %) had more sources of information and understanding regarding cancer. Thus, schools should enrich health education curricula with more information and understanding about cancer to promote cancer-screening intention among Japanese adolescents.

The purpose of this study was to clarify the implementation of health education in a practical teaching seminar for teaching profession, whose full-scale application at four-year universities was started in 2013. We carried out a nationwide mail survey of 158 departments at 152 universities oŠering courses leading to the junior high school and high school teaching certiˆcate (in health and physical education). The response rate was 43.0z (68/158), and after exclusion of one blank response, 67 cases were analyzed. Among the participants, 71.6z secured time for health education in a practical teaching seminar. The responses were examined to determine whether the contents of the class were considered suitable for a trial health class (62.5z), whether it re‰ected a health class in teaching practice (45.8z), whether the content was suitable for health education (39.6z), whether or not it re‰ected teaching methods in health education (37.5z), whether the design was suitable for devising teaching plans for health classes (33.3z), and whether the material was suitable for health education (27.1z). The various class styles included a trial lesson (48.7z), practice (48.0z), a lecture (33.7z), and others (40.2z). These results were considered to indicate that a practical teaching seminar would contribute to teacher training and development through improvement of curricula in the health educationˆeld.