Voluntary work in our hospital by women belonging to the Women's Division of the Agricultural Cooperatives Association (JA) in Nagano got started in 1973, when the hospital accepted the organized activity of the women. In the beginning, participants were mostly officials of the Women's Division, but later on, other people joined them. They formed a society of volunteers known as Aspara Kai. The voluntary activities are wide-ranging from those directly concerned with care of patients to collecting materials. They have played an important role as a bridge connecting health care to the community by telling people how things are going on in the hospital. Among the activities our hospital sponsors or supports, there are short courses in nursing care, health, mutual help and so on. Doctors and many other specialists on the hospital staff participate in these projects as volunteer lecturers. To enrich the content of these activities, we wish to join hands more tightly with the agricultural cooperatives and become a bearer of health care, medical service and welfare in the region. By carrying out our activities with a sense of unity, comprehensively and efficiently, we will be able to build a society of mutual aid.
seconds ; Hospitals ; Transection, NOS ; Human adult females ; Voluntary

Purpose: Schools in Japan were closed nationwide from March to May 2020 because of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. Many suspect that this school closure affected children’s mental and physical health. We investigated changes in school-age children’s physiques to determine the effects of the COVID-19 lockdown and restrictions on their health. Methods: Data were extracted from a database of school physical examinations in Osaka elementary and junior high schools for 4 consecutive years from 2018 to 2021. The following characteristics were analyzed: short stature, tall stature, underweight, mild obesity, middle grade obesity, and severe obesity. The paired Student t-test was used to compare school examination data in the prepandemic period (2018–2019), pandemic lockdown (2019–2020), and post-lockdown period (2020–2021). Results: Obesity rates in elementary school students aged 6–12 years, particularly in boys, were significantly higher during the lockdown than they were in 2019. After the pandemic, the tall stature rate continued to rise, while rates of short stature and underweight decreased in both sexes in 2020. In junior high school students aged 12–15 years, rates of obesity and underweight tended to decrease in 2020. However, these rates rebounded and rose in 2021 when the lockdown was lifted. Conclusion During the COVID-19 pandemic lockdown, elementary school students gained weight, while junior high school students lost weight. The lockdown that was implemented during the COVID-19 pandemic had an unfavorable effect on weight gain, particularly in young school-age children.