2.A Survey on Health Behavior of Chinese Foreign Students in Japan
Ayami KUME ; Mariko NISHIKAWA ; Ichiro OKUBO
Journal of International Health 2010;25(3):171-179
Objective
The number of foreign students coming to Japan continues to increase year by year. The majority of those students are from China. Besides social problems and insurance difficulties, cultural differences are an underlying cause of their health problem. The aim of our research is to evaluate the health behavior and health status of students from China who are living in Japan with the objective of providing recommendations for improvement of health care.
Method
A survey of students was conducted using questionnaires. The target for this study is Chinese students compared with domestic students at the same university in Japan. The contents of the questionnaire are related to; attribute attitude toward health and sickness, belief in health, mental and physical health status, social support, health behavior, and fitness activity.
Results
The rate of collected questionnaires was 35.7% (107/300) from Chinese students and 47.7% (143/300) from Japanese students. The average age of Chinese students was 24.5 years old and average duration of their stay was three years. Chinese students had high consciousness about maintaining good health. They obtained social support from friends, parents, acquaintances, family members other than parents and not much was obtained from school related people. As for health habit, female students were more likely to practice good health habits than males.
Conclusions
1.Chinese students had high consciousness about maintaining good health.
2.Chinese students living in a foreign culture are highly aware and concerned about their health status but they are not in a position to obtain sufficient social support from university. It is vital for them to secure imminent social supports from now on.
3.Differences in responses by gender were evident in the group related to health habits.
4.A soup in the palliative care:case studies of a service developed by our hospital
Hideaki Kawabata ; Naoki Kakihara ; Chiaki Taga ; Masanori Nishikawa ; Yoko Nishitani ; Kota Asano ; Mariko Nose ; Miwa Sakuma ; Eiichiro Kanda ; Masako Nishimura ; Makiko Yamaguchi ; Osamu Ikawa ; Katsuhiko Masuda
Palliative Care Research 2015;10(1):913-916
Palliative care team(PCT), nutrition support team(NST)and office of nutrition in our hospital developed a special soup service, which was served for ten patients faced with terminal cancer. The members of PCT, NST and the Cook served a special soup to ten patients. Nine of them could taste the soup without vomiting although they had anorexia. It was a good result. The number of days from the last day tasting the soup to death or hospital transfer was between 3 and 20 days(12.5 days on average), and the number of times they could taste the soup was between 1 and 3(2.0 times on average). Tasting the soup supports the strength of living, and might bring an improvement in spiritual quality of life.
5.Increased Cooperation with Dentistry by the Palliative Care Team
Hideaki Kawabata ; Masanori Nishikawa ; Hirosato Inoda ; Akio Tanaka ; Naoki Kakihara ; Chiaki Taga ; Mutsumi Kohigashi ; Mitsuo Nakamura ; Chisa Hasegawa ; Eiichiro Kanda ; Masako Nishimura ; Yukari Nakagawa ; Yoko Nishitani ; Mariko Nose ; Kota Asano ; Miwa Sakuma ; Keiko Fujimura
Palliative Care Research 2016;11(1):901-905
Recently, the palliative care team (PCT) at our hospital has included dentists. Among a total of 127 cancer patientsand required PCT intervention from 2009 to 2014, 17 patients (13.3%) had oral symptoms. Therefore, the PCT held discussions in order to determine the optimal way to treat each patient. Various symptoms, including oral pain, dry mouth, taste disturbance, furred tongue, excessive amounts of saliva, appetite loss, and trismus were treated by the dentists. As a result, the oral findings improved in all patients, while the oral symptoms improved in 16 of the 17 patients (94%). Thanks to the fact that dentists have joined the PCT, oral symptoms are effectively relieved, and PCT members now have an increased interest in oral cavity complications. Furthermore, conducting thorough examinations of the oral cavity by the PCT not only results in an improved QOL, but it has also increased the interest in the oral cavity on the part of the PCT. Therefore, more effective palliative care is expected to be achieved by promoting increased cooperation with more clinical departments.