Objectives: The purposes of this study were to clarify 1) the prevalence of foot and ankle pain and 2) the factors associated with foot and ankle pain among nurses.Methods: Nurses working at a university hospital in Japan were recruited to participate in this cross-sectional, questionnaire-based study. The occurrence of foot and ankle pain in the previous month was assessed by using the Standardized Nordic Questionnaire and the Manchester Foot Pain and Disability Index. Subjects also answered questions on footwear-related factors, including using the visual analog scale for shoe comfort. In addition, information on personal factors and psychosocial factors was collected using the Job Content Questionnaire. The relationships between the presence of foot and ankle pain and the associated factors were examined using multiple logistic regression analysis.Results: Responses of 636 nurses (response rate, 67%) were included for analysis. The prevalence of foot and ankle pain was 23% and 51% when using the Standardized Nordic Questionnaire and the Manchester Foot Pain and Disability Index, respectively. The prevalence of pain that prevented the nurses from performing activities of daily living and work was 4% and 17%, respectively. A low level of shoe comfort, personal factors (age and body mass index), and psychosocial factors (low job control and high job strain) was independently associated with the presence of foot and ankle pain.Conclusions: Foot and ankle pain occurred frequently in nurses. Shoe comfort, personal factors, and psychosocial factors were associated with foot and ankle pain.

This study aimed to develop a Japanese version of the Iowa Gambling Task (IGT) using Psychology Experiment Building Language based on the English version. Additionally, we tested the equivalence of these versions using a biological equivalence test. We randomly assigned 63 undergraduate and graduate students from several Japanese universities to our parallel design experiment. We evaluated equivalence by determining differences between the logs of the number of cards chosen from the advantageous decks in the Japanese and English versions in five blocks. We defined an equivalence margin as ± 30% (log (0.70 = -0.36, log (1/0.70) = 0.36, for log-transformation). All two-sided 90% family-wise confidence intervals in the five blocks were within the equivalence margin. Our results confirmed the equivalence of the Japanese and English versions of the IGT. The Japanese version can be used with the compiled executables and source code without charge. Future comparative studies should evaluate the IGT on Japanese samples or between samples from Japan and other countries.

The Iowa Gambling Task (IGT) is a widely used neuropsychological test to assess decision-making function in the frontal lobe. Previous studies have shown different results regarding the trajectory of Net Scores (the number of selected advantageous decks -the number of selected disadvantageous decks) across 5 Blocks for normal/ healthy people. Some studies found that they increased from Block 1 to Block 5. Other studies, however, pointed out that they do not always increase from Block 1 to Block 5. This study examined the Net Scores of 89 Japanese college students using the growth mixture model and latent class growth analysis. The participants were classified into four groups: two groups where the Net Score increased (the early-increase group (17 %) and the late-increase group (4 %)) and two groups where the Net Score was relatively unchanged (the moderate-horizontal group (64 %) and the low-horizontal group (15 %)). These results were discussed in regard to the difference in the number of trials for each group before a stable, long-term advantageous choice could be made.