To examine the work load of recent mechanized forestry work, energy expenditure, serum sarcoplasmic enzyme and urinary catecholamine were measured during engagement in the production of trees among twelve lumberjacks. Energy expenditure was relatively high in the works of debranching by a hatchet and hanging trees on carring wire cables. At least, the debranching work by a hatchet must be changed to more safety and lighter works. It was suggested that much more attention must be paid to the physiologic character of forestry work still now on the results of the changing pattern in serum sarcoplasmic enzyme and urinary catecholamine during these working process.

In order to observe the actual work types and the work load of female farmers in various kinds of agriculture that have gradually become a large part of agriculture in Japan as a result of changes in the structure of agricultural production, the authors performed a questionnaire and interview with a large number of female farmers (2, 113) and women in non-agricultural households.
Greenhouse farming was the most common work type for female farmers, followed by tobacco cultivation. The jobs conventionally undertaken by men, that have required a large dynamic work load, have been progressively mechanized, while auxiliary work before and after machinary work remain as manual labor by women. Some clear differences in the work type between full-time farming and part-time farming of female farmers were observed. On the other hand, it does not seem to be easy to estimate the work strain due to the work loads as mentioned above.

In the farm household of “vegetable planting by plastic green house”, “mandarin orange”, “rush (igusa)”, “dairy-farming” and “silk worm”, measurement of energy expenditure in agricultural work and analysis of daily working hours were conducted at the busy season of each crops. The results are as follows:
The energy consumption per day are estimated respectively to be 3300 Cal for male and 2900 Cal for female in the household of the “plastic green house”; 3500 and 2500 Cal in the “mandarin orange”, 3800 and 3600 Cal in the “rush”, 3300 and 2700 Cal in the “dairy-farming”, 3400 and 2700 Cal in the “silk worm”.
The agricultural machines and tools are mainly operated by male and so attached muscular works not yet machanized are carried by female. And management of animals or crops specially required prudent care have a tendency to be also carried by female. Then the average relative metabolic rate (RMR) a working day is relatively higher in female than male, except “mandarin orange”.
In the “rush harvesting” and “dairy-farming”, having the most development of the agricultural mechanization it seems obviousely to be rising the labor efficiency, but because of expansion of management scale and decreasing number of employee the reduction of work load for a worker is not necessory obvious.

A field study on the hourly working pattern, energy expenditure, air conditions and the testing for fatigue of the process of the raising silk worms for 4 days in August, the period of early autumn raising. Three couples of the typical raising silk worms households in Kikuchi district in Kumamoto Pref. were selected for the study. The results were as follows.
1. In Kikuchi district, there were 5-10 raising periods in a year from april to november for each households and the yearly working days for the process were to be 160-260 days.
In the period of early autumn raising, the average working times and energy expenditure a day were calculated to be 374±136 min. and 2891±277 kcal for males and 383±119 min. and 2494±91 kcal for females in the third state of period (after 5 days of accepting the larva); and in the fifth state of the process (after 10 days of the former state) 644±112 min. and 3087±136 kcal for males, 618±65 min. 2851±48 kcal for females; in the state of the spinning cocoons, 944±238 min. and 3735±459 kcal for males, 846±271 min. and 3209±754 kcal for females; in the state of the controlling cocoons, 560±115 min. and 2944±233 kcal for males, 478±68 min. and 2537±101 kcal for females. In the spinning state it was the highest work loads to be taken for both males and females through one raising period.
2. The RMR (relative metabolic rates) values of each elemental work were measured to be 0.6-3.7 (0.0322-0.0995 kcal/kg/min). The average RMR in a working time was 2.2±0.3 (1.7-2.9) for males and 2.1±0.3 (1.4-2.5) for females, and in the spinning state higher average value was observed for females than for males.
3. There was some difference between males and females in the distribution of working posture. For males 30.8%(9.5-46.2%) of all working times was the standing position, but in the contrally, for females, 66.0%(64.0-69.8%) was the half sitting position and only 11.0% was the standing position.
4. The considerable reduction of flicker frequency was observed at the end of working a day in each state of the period especially in the spinning state, and the increasing of complaints of fatigue symptoms was also observed.

Mass health survey was conducted to discuss the relationship between obesity and some factors of agricultural managements and living and working conditions among 349 pairs of housewives and their husbands selected from the rural communities in Kumamoto prefecture.
The prevalence rates of obesity (20% over of the Minowa's standard weights) were 13.1% for housewives of farmers, 13.7% for their husbands and 15.6 % for housewives of non-farmers, 9.2% for their husbands. The significant correlationship was found in the degree of obesity by Minowa's standard between housewives and their husbands (r= 0.1566, P<0.05).
Being compared the prevalence of obesity according with the kinds of each household's producting crops, peoples of the household of “shiitake: cortinellus shiitake”, “vegetables by plastic greenhouse”, “tabacco” and “animal husbandary ” were more likely to be obese and, inversely, those of “barley”, “vegetables in upland” and “sericulture” were less, than those of “rice”, “mandarin orange” and “forestry”. In the household of “vegetables by plastic greenhouse”, “rice”, “barley”, “mandarin orange” and “vegetables in upland” husbands were more obese than housewives and, inversely, in the household of “shiitake” and “forestry” housewives were more obese than husbands.
Peoples of fishing households were less likely to be obese than those of the farm households and/or other profession. Among the households of non-farmers it was noteworthy that higher prevalence rates of obesity were found in housewives than husbands, being inverse finding in the farmers case.
The results suggested that the agricultural management and it's labor conditions, as well as the level of agricultural economics, might strongly affect the occurrence of obesity in the Japanese rural community.

OBJECTIVESThe goal of the present study was to describe the changes in activities of daily living (ADL) of community-dwelling Beijing elderly people (n=3,257), observed for 8 years, and to identify the demographic characteristic that predict the functional change.

METHODSTwo sets of interview data (1992 and 2000) were used to evaluate changes among the elderly in reports of limitation in ADL management.

RESULTSThe prevalence of disability increased over 8 years both in IADL and BADL disability. The patterns of ADLs change were bi-directional. A large proportion (74.7%) of the elderly were found to remain active in their functional states, 20.4% of the elderly declined, 3.4% of the elderly remained disabled, and 1.5% showed improvement in functional states. The transition rates from non-disability and disability states to various functional states showed different characteristic, a high disability rate accompanied a high mortality rate. The demographic factors that affected the level of disability among different kinds of population manifested similar trends.

CONCLUSIONAge was the most significant predictor for functional limitations. In addition, demographic variables played an important role in estimating functional outcomes. It is recommended that the demarcation factor for the evaluation of ADLs should be 75 years of age.

In order to study whether there is any relation between the cause of anemia in rural women and environmental factor from the epidemiological standpoint, we have followed up the seasonal change of the blood properties (GB, Hb, Ht, R, Serum iron) of 3 groups of women in different working and living circumstances.
The results revealed a remarkable tendency to increase the values of the blood properties excluding serum iron in winter and to decrease in summer. The degree of seasonal change was found to be greater in rural women than that in factory workers. And among the factory workers, the married had more change than the unmarried, the rural residents than the urban. And among the rural women, only the establishmental gardeners who were especially busy in winter showed a tendency to decrease the values of the blood properties in winter.
From these data, we can see that the seasonal change of the burden of agricultural work and the change of dietary life actually have direct influence on the change of the blood properties.

OBJECTIVESTo clarify the relationship between bone mineral density (BMD) and body composition in Japanese women aged 18-40 years with low forearm BMD.

METHODSThe subjects were Japanese 199 women who had been selected for inclusion in the study based on a low forearm BMD determined at the Annual Women's Health Examination. The subjects' mean (+/- standard deviation) age, body height, body weight, and body mass index (BMI) were 33.5 (+/-4.3) years, 158.1 (+/-5.1) cm, 49.6 (+/-5.7) kg, and 19.8 (+/-2.1), respectively. The BMD of the lumbar spine, total body, and left arm were measured using dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry (DXA). Fat mass (FM), bone-free lean tissue mass (LTM), and body fat percentage (BF%) were measured simultaneously with DXA.

RESULTSIn the structural equation model, the standardized regression weights for the path from BMI to BMD of all sites were 0.273-0.434. Conversely, the BF% to BMD of the total body and left arm were -0.192 and -0.296, respectively. In multiple regression analysis, the FM index (FMI) was significantly associated with the BMD of the lumbar spine as a weight-bearing site. The LTM index (LTMI) was significantly associated with the BMD of the total body and left arm as a non-weight-bearing site.

CONCLUSIONSYoung females with low forearm BMD had low body weight and BMI. Thinness was shown to be a risk factor for low BMD, in accordance with results reported elsewhere. A gain in body weight may have the effect of increasing BMD, but our results suggest that to increase BMD, the gain in body weight must include increases in LTM, and not FM alone.

OBJECTIVEThe purpose of this study was to test the hypothesis that ADL disability affects the risk of onset of depressive symptoms and the role of possible confounding variables in this relation.

METHODSThe data was obtained from the Beijing Longitudinal Study of Aging, a community-based cohort study of 3,257 elderly, aged 55 through 99 years, who were assessed four time at an 8-year interval. ADL disability and depressive symptoms were assessed by self-reported measures.

RESULTSCompared with non-disabled persons, the disabled persons were associated with an increased risk of onset depression (RR=7.28 for urban, R=2.22 for non-urban). Although an adjustment for possible confounders reduced the risk for depression association with the disability, the detrimental effect of disability remained significantly present. This excess risk is partly explained by the lower satisfation with economy and poor perceived health status of the disabled elderly.

CONCLUSIONSDisability among elderly may significantly increase the risk for depressive symptoms.