This study aimed at clarifying the effects of intervention with the composite Dementia Prevention Program. Subjects were 46 elderly people who had participated in the program. The study method included intervention trials to test the effects on the changes in BMI, physical function, and cognitive function of the program participants before and after the trial. Those aged 75 and up (old-old participants) had significantly stronger grip strength before the intervention than those below the age of 75 (young-old participants), but there was no difference in cognitive and physical functions between old-old and young-old participants. The average number of steps taken in the young-old group had significantly increased from approximately 4,000 steps before intervention to approximately 7,000 steps after intervention. When it comes to physical functions, the time taken for the 5-m walking exercise was significantly shortened from 3.8±0.8s to 3.5±0.5s in the young-old subjects; a change from 3.5±0.8s to 3.7±1.0s was observed for TUG in the young-old subjects and from 4.1±1.0s to 3.6±1.0s in old-old subjects. As regards cognitive function, episodic memory of the young-old subjects improved significantly, from 47.9±7.5 points before intervention to 56.5±8.8 points after intervention. The improvement in the old-old subjects was gradual. Episodic memory was improved without bearing on the changes shown in the 5-m walking tests (β＝-0.751, p＝0.020). The physical functions and episodic memory in cognitive function had both improved. This study suggested early intervention could increase the dementia prevention effect.

  As the abilitiesof physical and daily life tend to fall by aging, and nutrition improvementis importantin elderly. Effects of nutrition improvement for elderly has verified on the seriously malnutrition elderly in a hospital, but there is little evidencefor elderly in community. We conducted the intervention by milk ingestion based on physical activities program for the frail elderly in community. Subjects were 45 elderly people (73.7±5.7 years old) who participated in the preventive program for three months in Izumo City, and were divided into two groups of 22 milk intervention subjects and 23 controlsubjects. The milk intervention group was provided with milk (180 ml/day) by door-to-door delivery, and the parameters of nutrition and anthropometricwere investigated before and after intervention. BMI, HDL-cholesterol and hemoglobinwere significantly improved in the milk intervention group, but no significant effects in the control. The intervention group had significant health-effects of BMI, albumin, HDL-cholesterol, hemoglobin, HbA1c and essential amino acids/nonessential-amino-acid ratio, compared with the control group. Asphysical activities in the control groupbefore intervention was poorer than the intervention group, the control group improvedsignificantlyby the physical activities program.In conclusion, daily milk ingestion based on physical activities program makes an improvement of nutrient state in frail elderly in community.

Effects of gender and employment situation on weight loss and lifestyle modification were assessed in a 3-month intervention study done for overweight and obesity. A total of 384 individuals in Izumo City Japan, participated from 2000 to 2006. Lifestyle modifications were quantitatively evaluated by calculating calories of energy intake and expenditure. Eleven men and 15 women failed to complete the intervention; they were significantly younger in both genders, and the women had a higher rate of employment than the completing group (91 men and 267 women). Intervention induced a weight loss of 1.9 kg for men and 1.6 kg for women, with no significant differences by gender. Significant differences were found in changes in energy intake and expenditure in both genders, but these disappeared after adjusting for weight. There were significant decreases in weight (1.6 kg in unemployed, 2.5 kg in employed) in men. Increases in walking and exercise for the employed were smaller than those for the unemployed. The relationship between changes in weight and energy balance by employment status was independently significant using multiple regression analysis. Employment is associated with difficulty in losing weight due to limited exercise time in behavioral intervention.