The authors investigated the condition of self-physique perception and eating behavior, and the relationship between self-physique perception and eating behavior of high school students in Japan. Regarding self-physique perception, subjects were shown six pictures of physiques and asked to choose one physique each for their actual physique and their ideal physique. With respect to eating behavior, the Japanese version of the Eating Attitudes Test (EAT)-26 was used. Groups of underweight girls, normal girls, and normal boys tended to regard their actual physiques as rather broad, demonstrating that many girls are excessively preoccupied with thinness. The rate of eating problems was 11.2% for the girls and 2.4% for the boys. For both boys and girls, those who idealized the thinner physique scored higher in terms of the EAT score and factor I score. Education regarding body perception and diet must be undertaken as soon as possible in Japan.

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Aim:  The aim of this paper was to study the non‐verbal communication skills of nursing students and to make a quantitative comparison of the communication techniques of nursing students and experienced nurses to provide guidance for education. Methods:  Twenty‐six students (the student group) and 13 nurses (the nurse group) played the role of a nurse. The participants interacted with two simulated patients for 5 min each. The simulated patient was in a sitting position and the nurse started interaction from a starting point that was 3 m away from the patient. Videotaped recordings of these scenarios were recorded and analysed every second using record paper. The analysis items were the distance between the patient and the nurse, posture and position, utterance time, the direction of a nursing person’s face to the patient, facial expression, head nodding, gestures, and the self‐contact behavior of a nurse during interaction with a patient. Results:  As 90% of the student group interacted in the standing position, significantly fewer students than the nurse group had their gaze level at the same level or lower than the client. The duration of upper limb and hand gestures was significantly shorter in the student group than for the nurse group. Conclusions:  The finding that nursing students showed fewer non‐verbal communication behaviors than nurses suggests there is a pressing need for the development of an educational program in nursing science training to improve non‐verbal communications skills.

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Life expectancy does not necessarily match quality of life (QOL). A cohort study involving a population of 10,107 in a certain city of Japan was conducted to evaluate active life expectancy (ALE), which has a direct relationship with QOL. The ALE that took functional recovery rates into account was 17.20 and 19.08 years for males and females respectively, at the age of 65. These values increased by 2.98 and 3.87 years for men and women, respectively, compared with when functional recovery rates were not considered. ALE may serve as an indicator for the objective evaluation of various public health services provided by local governments.