The present study aimed to examine the effects of community-based intervention on cognitive function and hand finger dexterity in older adults at different levels of time to go out. Forty men and women (age, 73 ± 1 years) participated in supervised group activity and seated exercise for 60 min per session, once each week during an 8-week intervention. The participants wore an activity monitor for 1 week to determine baseline values and for the 8 weeks of intervention. Mini-mental state examination (MMSE) and pegboard test, which is related to cognitive function, were assessed before and after the intervention. Based on the total time to go out at baseline, the participants were assigned to Control group (> 60 min/day, n = 18) or Short group (≦ 60 min /day, n = 22), and then analyzed. After the 8 weeks of intervention, the Control and Short groups improved physical fitness parameters such as handgrip strength. Although MMSE in the both groups did not reach statistically significant level, these values tended to increase slightly from the baseline. Interestingly, two-way repeated-measures analysis of variance indicated significant interaction of pegboard test, and the score significantly increased only in the Short group. Total physical activity and moderate-vigorous physical activity in the both groups did not change significantly between the baseline and intervention periods. Therefore, these results suggest that the trainability of pegboard test, which is an index of hand finger dexterity and is related to cognitive function, would differ depending on the time to go out at baseline in older adults.

　　The main purpose of our hospital training program for newly hired employees at Anjo Kosei Hospital is to encourage them to learn basic knowledge to live as a member of society. In this study, questionnaire surveys for all recruits were carried out at the beginning, at the end of, and 6 months after the training program to evaluate the significance of the training program. The number of the study subjects who had our training program was 138 in 2012 and 146 in 2013. We have placed great emphasis on our fundamental principles for the recruits to learn. The series of surveys showed that the lecture given by our hospital director on the ideals of hospital care was well received by the recruits. Moreover, the experience-oriented training program also satisfied the participants greatly, as it included the tour of hospital, and the training of safety in medical treatment, infection control, and customer support. Additionally, the surveys found that our hospital training program allowed the new employees to deeply understand a basic knowledge to live as a member of society. Furthermore, the questionnaire survey made at 6 months after the training program revealed that over 80% of the recruits thought our training program would play an important role in promoting their job skill. These results suggest that questionnaire surveys are useful to evaluate the change in their ideas of the recruits before and after the training program, leading to an improvement of the quality of our hospital training program.

  This research was carried out to review the current state of thinga involving trainees (students and business workers) accepted by Anjo-Kosei Hospital and to clarify the role the Education Center in our hospital is expected to play in supporting trainees. The subjects were medical and non-medical students and business workers who signedup for our internship program and junior and senior high school students who paticipated in the hands-on training program at Anjo-Kosei Hospital between April 2006 and March 2009. A total of about 1,300 students and business workers had experienced the actual hands-on work each year. The number of medical students accepted was 289, 289, and 339 in 2006, 2007, and 2008, respectively. Besides, the number of non-medical students also increased from 847 to 1,045 in the period of three years. The business workers accepted came from 15 different types of occupation. It was found that junior and senior high school students were interested in the nursing-care field and this seemed to help them consider seriously their life as students and members of society, leading to the increased number of students who joined our program. In addition, unfortunately, two-fifths of the program were unfavorable for trainees because of poor management. The present research suggested that the Education Center take on a signification role in managing the internship and the hands-on training programs to accelerate the potential of students and business workers.

An abdominal advancement flap (AAF) is a flap that pulls the elevated abdominal skin up and creates the shape of the inferior portion of the breast by making a neo-inframammary fold. Seven patients underwent remodeling using an AAF or a method combining an AAF with other volume displacement techniques after partial mastectomy. The excision volume ranged from 15% to 35%. AAF with only mobilization of the gland flaps was performed in two cases, with lateral mammoplasty in one case, with the round block technique (RBT) in one case, with a modified RBT in one case, and with medial mammoplasty in two cases. Although one patient treated with a RBT had a partial blood-flow insufficiency of the nipple-areola complex, it improved with conservative treatment. The cosmetic results were found to be excellent in three cases, good in three, and fair in one case.
Breast ; Cosmetics ; Displacement (Psychology) ; Female ; Humans ; Mammaplasty ; Mastectomy, Segmental ; Skin ; Surgical Procedures, Operative

We introduce a method combining two oncoplastic techniques for breast-conserving reconstruction. The procedure is as follows: first, an extended glandular flap is made by undermining the breast from both the skin and the pectoralis fascia to the upper edge of the breast at the subclavicular area. After modeling the breast mound with the extended glandular flap, an inframammary adipofascial flap is made. The flap is reflected back to the breast area remodeled using the extended glandular flap. After reshaping the breast, the inframammary line is then re-shaped. This method is indicated for patients with breast cancer in the outer portion of the breast, who have small dense breasts, and have undergone a large excision of about 40% of their breast volume. We treated four patients, all of whom had either excellent or good cosmetic results with no fat necrosis.
Breast ; Breast Neoplasms ; Cosmetics ; Fascia ; Fat Necrosis ; Female ; Humans ; Mammaplasty ; Mastectomy, Segmental ; Skin

PURPOSE: Although various strategies have been reported, there are no defined criteria for cosmetic evaluation methods after breast-conserving surgery (BCS). Since Asians tend to have smaller breasts, indistinct inframammary folds, and conspicuous scars, differences in the cosmetic results are expected. So we examined two subjective methods and one objective method to determine the differences, and elements necessary for a cosmetic evaluation after BCS. METHODS: Frontal photographs of 190 Japanese were evaluated using the Harris scale (Harris) and the evaluation method proposed by the Japanese Breast Cancer Society Sawai group (Sawai group) as the subjective methods, and the Breast Cancer Conservation Treatment cosmetic results (BCCT.core) as the objective method, respectively. In order to examine the necessary elements for developing a new ideal method, 100 out of 190 were selected and assessed separately by six raters using both the Harris and modified Sawai group methods in the observer assessment. The correlation between the two methods was examined using the Spearman rank-correlation coefficient. RESULTS: The results of the BCCT.core and the other two methods were clearly different. In the observer assessment, the consensuses of the six raters were evaluated as follows: 27, 27, 26, and 20 cases were evaluated as "excellent," "good," "fair," and "poor," respectively. For the Spearman rank-correlation coefficient, values higher than 0.7 indicated a strong correlation, as seen by the values of 0.909 for the breast shape and 0.345 for the scar. The breast shape accounted for the most significant part of the evaluation, and the scar had very little correlation. CONCLUSION: In this study, we recognized a clear difference between the subjective and objective evaluation methods, and identified the necessary elements for cosmetic evaluation. We would like to continue developing an ideal cosmetic evaluation that is similar to subjective one and is independent from raters.
Asian Continental Ancestry Group* ; Breast ; Breast Neoplasms ; Cicatrix ; Consensus ; Esthetics ; Humans ; Mastectomy, Segmental*

Green tea catechins are well known to be one of polyphenols, and its regular ingestion induces body fat reduction in obese individuals. Cocoa polyphenols of high-cocoa chocolate can also improve arterial stiffness. However, it is unclear whether green tea catechins improve body fat and arterial stiffness even in healthy young adults. Therefore, this study aimed to examine the effects of regular green tea intake on body fat and arterial stiffness in young adults. This randomized, controlled, parallel-group intervention study included 53 Japanese college students (mean age, 21.1 ± 0.1; men, n = 40; women, n = 13). They were randomly divided into three groups: control group (n = 14), intervention I group (n = 19), and intervention II group (n = 20). The participants ingested 500 ml/day of commercially available natural water (0 mg of catechin/day) or green tea (intervention I group, 200 mg of catechin/day; intervention II group, 400 mg of catechin/day) for 4 weeks. After 4 weeks of intervention period, no significant changes in body weight, body mass index, pulse wave velocity, and cardio-ankle vascular index were observed in all groups. However, body fat and carbon dioxide output significantly reduced only in the intervention II group. With the level of catechin concentrations increasing, significant decreasing trends were found in body fat changes and respiratory exchange ratio changes. Therefore, these findings suggest that four weeks of regular green tea intake would reduce body fat, but not arterial stiffness, in young adults.

BACKGROUND/AIMS: The influences of Helicobacter pylori eradication therapy on the disease course of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) are still unclear. We therefore conducted a multicenter, retrospective cohort study to evaluate the safety of H. pylori eradication therapy for IBD patients. METHODS: IBD patients with H. pylori eradication from 2005 to 2015 (eradication group) and control patients (non-eradication group; 2 paired IBD patients without H. pylori eradication matched with each eradicated patient) were included. IBD exacerbation (increased/additional IBD drug or IBD-associated hospitalization/surgery) and disease improvement based on the physicians’ global assessment were investigated at baseline, and at 2 and 6 months after eradication or observation. RESULTS: A total of 429 IBD (378 ulcerative colitis, 51 Crohn’s disease) patients, comprising 144 patients in the eradication group and 285 patients in the non-eradication group, were enrolled at 25 institutions. IBD exacerbation was comparable between groups (eradication group: 8.3% at 2 months [odds ratio, 1.76; 95% confidence interval, 0.78–3.92; P=0.170], 11.8% at 6 months [odds ratio, 1.60; 95% confidence interval, 0.81–3.11; P=0.172]). Based on the physicians’ global assessment at 2 months, none of the patients in the eradication group improved, whereas 3.2% of the patients in the non-eradication group improved (P=0.019). Multivariate analysis revealed that active disease at baseline, but not H. pylori eradication, was an independent factor for IBD exacerbation during 2 months’ observation period. The overall eradication rate was 84.0%–comparable to previous reports in non-IBD patients. CONCLUSIONS: H. pylori eradication therapy does not alter the short-term disease activity of IBD.
Clarithromycin ; Cohort Studies ; Colitis, Ulcerative ; Helicobacter pylori* ; Helicobacter* ; Humans ; Inflammatory Bowel Diseases* ; Metronidazole ; Multivariate Analysis ; Retrospective Studies

BACKGROUND: Physical activity is reported to prevent metabolic syndrome. However, it is unclear whether exercise or daily physical activity is more beneficial for residents of semi-mountainous areas. This study aimed to identify whether daily physical activity is more beneficial than exercise for the prevention of metabolic syndrome among middle-aged and older residents in semi-mountainous areas. METHODS: We analyzed secondary data of 636 people who underwent a specific health checkup in a semi-mountainous area of Japan. Physical activity was classified into four types: inactivity (I-type; without exercise and without daily physical activity), only exercise (E-type; with exercise and without daily physical activity), only daily physical activity (D-type; without exercise and with daily physical activity), and full physical activity type (F-type; with exercise and with daily physical activity). We compared the means of risk factors for metabolic syndrome by these four types, followed by logistic regression analysis, to identify whether and to what extent the D-type was less likely to have metabolic syndrome than the E-type. RESULTS: The prevalence of metabolic syndrome was 28.5% (men 45.7%, women 15.8%). The proportions of men with exercise and daily physical activity were 38.7% and 52.8%, respectively. For women, the proportions were 33.0% and 47.1%, respectively. In women, the D-type had the significantly lowest BMI, smallest waist circumference, highest HDL-C, and lowest prevalence of metabolic syndrome of the four types; the same was not observed in men. Additionally, D-type activity was more strongly associated with a reduced risk of metabolic syndrome than E-type activity in women (adjusted odds ratio 0.24; 95% confidence interval 0.06-0.85, P = 0.028). CONCLUSIONS Compared to middle-aged and older women residents with exercise in a semi-mountainous area of Japan, those with daily physical activity may effectively prevent metabolic syndrome.
Adult ; Aged ; Altitude ; Exercise ; Female ; Humans ; Japan/epidemiology* ; Male ; Metabolic Syndrome/prevention & control* ; Middle Aged ; Rural Population/statistics & numerical data*