These findings revealed that elderly people living alone as well as those living with family other than a spouse had poor dietary intake, suggesting that strategies to improve food choices and skills for food preparation could promote of healthy eating in elderly Japanese people.

ObjectivesLaughter has a positive and quantifiable effect on certain aspects of health, and previous studies have suggested that income influences the emotion. However, it is unknown whether social relationship-related factors modify the association between equivalised income and laughter among older people. In the present study, we examined the relationship between equivalised income and the frequency of laughter. In addition, we examined the impact of social relationship-related factors on the association between equivalised income and frequency of laughter using a cross-sectional study design.DesignCross-sectional study and binomial regression analysis.SettingWe sampled from 30 municipalities in Japan.ParticipantsWe examined 20 752 non-disabled Japanese individuals aged ≥65 years using data from the Japan Gerontological Evaluation Study.Primary outcomeFrequency of laughter.ResultsLaughter increased significantly with an increase in equivalent income (p for trend <0.0001). Prevalence ratios (PR) for laughing almost every day were calculated according to quartile equivalised income after adjusting for age, instrumental activities of daily living, depression, frequency of meeting friends, number of social groups and family structure. The results revealed that PRs in Q4 (men; ≥€24 420, women; ≥€21 154) were 1.21 (95% CI 1.13 to 1.30) among men and 1.14 (95% CI 1.08 to 1.20) among women, as compared with Q1 (men; <€12 041, women; <€9518), respectively. After excluding participants with depression, the association remained significant. In addition, we found inadequate social relationships and living alone were associated with a lower frequency of laughter. In comparison with the lowest equivalent income with meeting friends less frequently and living alone, the PRs of the highest equivalent income with meeting friends frequently and living with someone were higher, respectively.ConclusionsThe results revealed a significant relationship between equivalent income and the frequency of laughter. Social relationships and family structure were also associated with the frequency of laughter.

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argument of this paper lies on the differentiation between the two aspects of architectural space ： that as geometrically represented entity and that as cognitive entity in our mind ． An experimental anaiysis here showed that several different floor plans can be drawn from sing ］ e cognitive description of real architectural space written in ． an essay ． Further ana ｝ ysis on 70 plans drawn by the subjects in the experiment showed that there underlies a certain sort of strue − tured " orientation system " for each drawing ， which is constructed from the percieved ' ' directions " of verious parts ． Based on this result ， the authors tried to reinterpret a series of previous con ・ tributions to cognitive map studies and to highlight a cognitive aspect of arehitectural drawings ． KeyweiTts：architectural ptanning， drawing ， ノ