BackgroundMany studies have focused on disease causality, but few of them deal with health-promoting factors. Thus, we examined the effect of having a sense of purpose in life (ikigai) on mortality from cardiovascular disease (CVD).MethodsIn 1988, we conducted a prospective cohort study of 2,959 Japanese subjects, ranging in age from 40 to 74 years, and followed them till the end of 2003. The level of their sense of purpose in life was evaluated by a self-administered questionnaire. After excluding those with a history of heart disease, stroke, or malignant tumor, 1,618 subjects (832 men and 786 women) who had completed the questionnaire were used in the analyses with Cox’s proportional hazards model.ResultsDuring the average 13.3 years of follow up, 249 deaths (172 men and 77 women) occurred as a result of all causes: 32 from heart disease, 31 from stroke, 63 from CVD, and 104 from malignant tumors. The adjusted hazard ratios for death in men with a strong sense of purpose in life, as compared with those with a low sense of purpose, were 0.28 (95% confidence interval: 0.10-0.84) for stroke, 0.56 (0.28-1.10) for CVD, and 0.62 (0.45-0.86) as a result of all causes. In women, no significant relationship was found between having a sense of purpose in life and mortality; this was possibly because the smaller number of deaths reduced the statistical significance.ConclusionWe found that in men, having a sense of purpose in life affected the risk of death as a result of all causes, stroke, and CVD.

OBJECTIVEAlthough sinusitis-induced intracranial complications rarely occur in the current era of antibiotics, they can induce neurological symptoms or death. The authors of this study investigated the association between endoscopic sinus surgery (ESS) and outcomes in patients who had undergone neurosurgical procedures for sinusitis-induced intracranial abscess.METHODSThe authors obtained data on patients with sinusitis-induced intracranial abscess from the Japanese Diagnosis Procedure Combination inpatient data for the period from 2010 to 2017. They excluded patients with fungal sinusitis, orbital complications, immunodeficiency, and malignant disease. They also excluded patients who had received antifungal agents, chemotherapy, immunosuppressants, and antidiabetic drugs. Eligible patients were divided into those with and those without neurosurgical procedures. Propensity score–adjusted regression analyses were performed to examine the association between ESS within the same hospitalization and outcomes (mortality, blood transfusion, readmission, revision neurosurgery, and length of stay).RESULTSOf the 552 potentially eligible patients, 255 were treated with neurosurgical procedures, including 104 who underwent ESS within the same hospitalization and 151 who did not. ESS was not significantly associated with mortality (OR 0.54, 95% CI 0.05–5.81, p = 0.61), blood transfusion (OR 1.95, 95% CI 0.84–4.51, p = 0.12), readmission (OR 0.86, 95% CI 0.34–2.16, p = 0.75), revision neurosurgery (OR 0.65, 95% CI 0.24–1.74, p = 0.39), or length of stay (percent difference −10.8%, 95% CI −24.4% to 5.1%, p = 0.18).CONCLUSIONSThe present study suggests that ESS may not have significant benefits with respect to reducing mortality, blood transfusion, readmission, revision neurosurgery, or length of stay.

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