: Obesity in children has become a major global public health concern. The prevention of obesity must start from early childhood in order to establish sound lifestyle habits and promote healthy adulthood. In this study, we evaluated factors associated with the prevention of obesity and the development of healthy lifestyle habits in children. A cross-sectional, questionnaire-based survey was performed in elementary and junior high school students in Tokushima Prefecture, Japan, during the summer of 2004. The questionnaire consisted of 30 items such as physique, sleep, eating habits, diet, exercise, free time, and attending after-school lessons. Our study revealed that eating meals as a family every day is associated with a lower rate of obesity as well as getting good lifestyle habits such as eating balanced meals and getting enough sleep. Of the 3,291 students who responded to the questionnaire, 2,688 (81.7% %) reported that they eat meals with their family every day. The percentage of students who eat meals with their family every day decreased with increasing school grade, with the lowest percent in the junior high school students. However, the results regarding female junior high school students revealed a marked association between eating meals with the family every day and good lifestyle habits. We recommend that parents and school teaching staff encourage the establishment of sound, healthy lifestyle habits in children from early childhood as an effective measure for the prevention of obesity. J. Med. Invest. 55 : 71-77, February, 2008

Prolonged life expectancy must be recognized as an excellent achievement of modern medicine, but not all the elderly people are satisfied with their lives. Life satisfaction is a multi-dimensional issue that depends on many objective and subjective characteristics. In this study, we aimed at investigating the factors affecting life satisfaction of 314 elderly Japanese women attending in 28 elderly-care and welfare facilities at Tokushima Prefecture, Japan. Our results indicated that elderly subjects with depression tendencies always show significantly lower degrees of life satisfaction than others who are not depressed (p<0.001) regardless of their cognitive status. Furthermore, elderly women who shared decision for their living place and whose opinions were considered for daily life decisions reported significantly more life satisfaction levels than others. We conclude that elderly life satisfaction is affected by various determinants however, with different influencing weight. Life satisfaction of elderly people, with or without dementia, is greatly affected by their mood status and share in decision making. Avoiding elderly people depressive mood, sharing them in various daily decisions, considering their opinions, and allowing them to decide their elderly-care facility placement are crucial determinants for their life satisfaction and essential for their coping, adaptation, well-being and successful aging.

Month and season of birth are thought to influence height, weight and degree of obesity in schoolchildren. A cross-sectional study was designed to measure the height and weight of all children aged 6-15 years attending primary and junior high schools in Tokushima Prefecture, Japan. Data were standardized (z-scores) and analysed separately by gender and age. The mean z-score for height and weight were the highest in subjects born during the months of spring and the lowest in those born during the months of winter (p < 0.0001), whereas the means were significantly higher in children born during the months of summer than in those born during the months of autumn (p < 0.0001). A gradually decreasing trend of height and weight was observed in children of both genders born between May and Mar (from spring to winter). There was no significant difference in degree of obesity among the four seasons of birth for boys and girls. The highest prevalence of obese boys have born during spring (among 6-year-old boys) and summer (among 7-year-old boys), whereas the highest prevalence of obese girls have born during spring (among 6-year-old girls) and winter (among 10-year-old girls). Our findings suggest that month and season of birth influence height and weight of schoolchildren in Tokushima but not their degree of obesity.