BackgroundSmoking bans in public places have been shown to have an impact on smoking habits, however the potential influence of a university smoking ban on faculty and staff smoking habits remains elusive.MethodsThis cross sectional study was implemented in Nayoro City, Japan in 2011, among the faculty and students of the Nayoro City University. Five years after the declaration of a total ban on smoking on a university campus, the smoking characteristics of all students, teachers and office workers, and the policy’s impact on smokers were investigated. The survey was conducted through an anonymous, self-administered, multiple-choice questionnaire. Information was gathered on the characteristics and smoking characteristics of respondents, and the smokers attitudes toward smoking.ResultsThe recovery rate was 62.1%. Among respondents, smoking prevalence was 17.9% in teachers and office workers, and 4.0% in students. Among all smokers, 46.4% did not abstain from smoking while at the university and they indicated their smoking areas were “on the streets next to the campus”: 16 and “outdoors on campus”: 3, respectively. As for smokers, 29.6% of them reduced the number of cigarettes smoked per day as a result of the smoking ban. None of the ex-smokers replied that their principal motivation for quitting smoking was the smoking ban.ConclusionsThe ban on smoking served a motivator for smokers to reduce in smoking, but not serve as an effective motivator to quit smoking.

Objective: Several studies have demonstrated the relationship between temporomandibular disorder (TMD) and emotional stress. Nonetheless, few surveys have examined the relationship between type A behavior patterns and TMD. The aim of this study was to clarify the relationships among TMD, type A behavior patterns, bruxism, and emotional stress in Japanese undergraduate students.Methods: This study was undertaken in Nayoro City, Japan, in 2015, among students of Nayoro City University. The survey was conducted through an anonymous, self-administered, multiple-choice questionnaire. Information was gathered on items evaluating the extent of TMD symptoms, bruxism, type A behavior patterns, and proneness and sensitivity to emotional stress.Results: The questionnaire recovery rate was 31.8% (175/551). There was a high likelihood of TMD in 16.1% of respondents, which is comparable to the findings of previous surveys on Japanese high school students. In keeping with previous studies, we confirmed significant relationships between TMD and both emotional stress and bruxism. A weak but statistically significant association was found between TMD and type A behavior patterns.Conclusion: We propose that TMD may be one of the diseases related to the type A behavior pattern.

Objective: Early life events connected with the risk of later disease can occur not only in utero, but also in infancy. In study of the developmental origins of health and disease, the relationship between infantile growth patterns and adolescent body mass index and blood pressure is one of the most important issues to verify.Materials and Methods: We analyzed the correlation of current body mass index and systolic blood pressure of 168 female college students with their growth patterns in utero and in infancy.Results: Body mass index and systolic blood pressure in adolescence showed positive correlations with changes in weight-for-age z scores between 1 and 18 months but not with those between 18 and 36 months. Stepwise multiple regression analysis showed that both change in weight-for-age z scores from 1 to 18 months and body mass index at 1 month were significantly and independently associated with systolic blood pressure in adolescence. Body mass index at 36 months was positively correlated with body mass index in adolescence, while body mass index at birth was negatively correlated with body mass index in adolescence.Conclusion: Our findings shows that restricted growth in utero and accelerated weight gain in early infancy are associated with the cardiovascular risk factors of high systolic blood pressure and high body mass index in adolescence. In Japan, an increasing proportion of low birth weight infants and accelerated catch-up growth after birth have been observed in recent decades. This might be an alarming harbinger of an increase in diseases related to the developmental origins of health and disease in Japan.

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Abstract:The purpose of this research was to study whether agricultural high school students' attitudes towards social support for consumers would improve with their involvement in a school lunch program for elementary and middle school pupils. A comparison of the pre-and post-intervention data revealed the food knowledge, production skills, and attitudes towards food production for children among students at the experimental and control schools. A pilot trial study was conducted that involved growing tomatoes and distributing a newsletter on school lunches to primary and middle school children. The study was implemented from April to October every year from 2006 to 2009. A total of 92 agricultural high school students and 20 controlled agricultural students participated during these four years. The evaluation survey comprised questions about food nutrition, food production, and access to health and nutritional support services. The students who worked in assisting the school lunch program exhibited increased knowledge and skills related to producing a newsletter on produce for consumers as compared to the control student group. The students' food knowledge and production skills showed a significant positive correlation with their attitudes towards assisting in the school lunch program. Therefore, the acquisition of knowledge and skills regarding the preparation of a newsletter on produce by agricultural high school students increased significantly through the experience of supporting a school lunch program.

Objective: The purpose of the study was to discover whether tomato consumption in elementary- and middle-school students could be increased through a school lunch programme developed by agricultural high-school students acting as peer educators. Design: The high-school lunch programme included the process of growing tomatoes and providing a newsletter on school lunches to elementary- and middle-school children. Agricultural high-school students were trained as peer educators. Setting: Six hundred and thirty-one students at 16 schools in Hokkaido, Japan, participated in the programme. Method: The evaluation survey items comprised questions about taste preference, eating motivation, and behaviours related to the high-school lunch programme and the usual school lunch. The analysis provided a comparison between a group of students who ate more tomatoes after the programme and a group who showed no change in eating preferences, and revealed factors affecting the increase in tomato consumption. Results: In all, 17% of the students started to eat more tomatoes after the programme than they had eaten previously. Among the students who ate more tomatoes, the ratio of answers on the choices ‘Tomatoes were delicious’, ‘I request high-school lunch again’, and ‘I want to eat high-school tomatoes at home’ was significantly higher than that among other students whose tomato intake did not increase. The most important factors affecting increased tomato consumption were ‘students’ tomatoes were delicious’. Conclusion: A school lunch programme developed by agricultural high-school students may be effective for increasing vegetable consumption in elementary- and middle-school students.