This cross-sectional study examined the association between job loss during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic and health-related quality of life (HRQOL) in the Japanese working population and whether universal financial support program has a protective influence on the HRQOL. Two self-reported internet surveys were used to determine job loss during the pandemic: one was conducted between February and March 2020, just before the COVID-19 emergency declaration by the Japanese government (April 2020), and the other was conducted between August and September 2020. For the dependent variable, we used the EQ-5D-5L utility score (QOL utility score), which was assessed between August and September 2020. The independent variables were job loss after the state of emergency was declared and two types of government financial support (either universal support or support targeting childraising households). The Tobit regression model was applied, adjusting for covariates. Job loss during the pandemic was negatively associated with the QOL utility score in the fully adjusted model; the coefficient (95% confidence interval [CI]) for job loss during the pandemic was −0.07 (−0.11 to −0.03). For the government financial support variables, the universal financial support program was associated with a better QOL utility score of the coefficient (95% CI), 0.05 (0.03 to 0.08). Job loss during the COVID-19 pandemic is negatively associated with HRQOL, while universal financial support is positively associated with HRQOL. Our study results imply that universal financial support during the COVID-19 era has a protective influence on an individual's HRQOL.
Background The use of social media by hospitals has become widespread in the United States and Western European countries. However, in Japan, the extent to which hospitals and clinics use social media is unknown. Furthermore, recent revisions to the Medical Care Act may subject social media content to regulation. Objective The purpose of this study was to examine social media use in Japanese hospitals and clinics. We investigated the adoption of social media, analyzed social media content, and compared content with medical advertising guidelines. Methods We randomly sampled 300 hospitals and 300 clinics from a list of medical institutions that was compiled by the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare. We performed web and social media (Facebook and Twitter) searches using the hospital and clinic names to determine whether they had social media accounts. We collected Facebook posts and Twitter tweets and categorized them based on their content (eg, health promotion, participation in academic meetings and publications, public relations or news announcements, and recruitment). We compared the collected content with medical advertising guidelines. Results We found that 26.0% (78/300) of the hospitals and 7.7% (23/300) of the clinics used Facebook, Twitter, or both. Public relations or news announcements accounted for 53.99% (724/1341) of the Facebook posts by hospitals and 58.4% (122/209) of the Facebook posts by clinics. In hospitals, 16/1341 (1.19%) Facebook posts and 6/574 (1.0%) tweets and in clinics, 8/209 (3.8%) Facebook posts and 15/330 (4.5%) tweets could conflict medical advertising guidelines. Conclusions Fewer hospitals and clinics in Japan use social media as compared to other countries. Social media were mainly used for public relations. Some content disseminated by medical institutions could conflict with medical advertising guidelines. This study may serve as a reference for medical institutions to guide social media usage and may help improve medical website advertising in Japan.
Pneumonia-related mortality is expected to increase in aging societies. This prospective cohort study examined whether daily walking (1 hour/day) could reduce pneumonia-related mortality among older people who lacked other exercise habits. We analysed data from Japanese Specific Health Checkup across 82 municipalities in 7 prefectures among participants aged ≥65 years who participated in daily walking but did not regularly engage in other forms of exercise (n = 132,448). Information on walking habits and health-related indicators was assessed at a baseline survey conducted between 2008 and 2014. Pneumonia-related and all-cause mortality were followed for a median of 3.4 years. We performed a competing risk model with propensity score matching to evaluate the association between daily walking habits and pneumonia-related mortality. Our propensity-matched analysis revealed a significant association between daily walking and pneumonia-related mortality among older people who lacked other exercise habits, such that the sub-hazard ratio and 95% confidence intervals were 0.58 (0.39, 0.86). This study extends the findings of previous research on the effects of exercise on pneumonia by demonstrating that daily walking alone is sufficient to reduce pneumonia-related mortality among older people who do not regularly engage in other exercise habits.
BackgroundThe academic scandal on a study on stimulus‑triggered acquisition of pluripotency (STAP) cells in Japan in 2014 involved suspicions of scientific misconduct by the lead author of the study after the paper had been reviewed on a peer‑review website. This study investigated the discussions on STAP cells on Twitter and content of newspaper articles in an attempt to assess the role of social compared with traditional media in scientific peer review.ObjectiveThis study examined Twitter utilization in scientific peer review on STAP cells misconduct.MethodsSearches for tweets and newspaper articles containing the term “STAP cells” were carried out through Twitter’s search engine and Nikkei Telecom database, respectively. The search period was from January 1 to July 1, 2014. The nouns appearing in the “top tweets” and newspaper articles were extracted through a morphological analysis, and their frequency of appearance and changes over time were investigated.ResultsThe total numbers of top tweets and newspaper articles containing the term were 134,958 and 1646, respectively. Negative words concerning STAP cells began to appear on Twitter by February 9-15, 2014, or 3 weeks after Obokata presented a paper on STAP cells. The number of negative words in newspaper articles gradually increased beginning in the week of March 12-18, 2014. A total of 1000 tweets were randomly selected, and they were found to contain STAP-related opinions (43.3%, 433/1000), links to news sites and other sources (41.4%, 414/1000), false scientific or medical claims (8.9%, 89/1000), and topics unrelated to STAP (6.4%, 64/1000).ConclusionsThe discussion on scientific misconduct during the STAP cells scandal took place at an earlier stage on Twitter than in newspapers, a traditional medium.
Background The relationship between obesity and back pain in older populations is poorly understood. This study aimed to examine (1) the impacts of changes in obesity status on back pain risk and (2) the heterogeneity in the influence of changes in obesity status according to muscle strength. Methods We analyzed 6,868 participants in waves 4 (2008–2009), 6 (2012–2013), and 7 (2014–2015) of the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing. The exposure comprised continuous body mass index (BMI) values, whereas the outcome comprised self-reported moderate or severe back pain. The targeted minimum loss-based estimator was used to estimate the impacts of hypothetical changes in BMI in each wave under 10 scenarios encompassing a 5%−25% hypothetical reduction/increase in BMI. We also performed stratified analysis using handgrip strength at the baseline. Results For the hypothetical reduction scenarios, a 10% (relative risk [RR]) (95% confidence interval [CI]) = 0.82 (0.73–0.92), P = 0.001] reduction in BMI estimated a significantly lower back pain risk compared to the observed data. For the hypothetical increase scenarios, a 5% [RR (95% CI) = 1.11 (1.04–1.19), P = 0.002] increase in BMI estimated a significantly higher back pain risk. Increased BMI had a higher risk of back pain among those with weak strength when stratified by handgrip strength but not among those with strong strength. Conclusions Our study confirmed that weight gain leads to a greater risk of back pain as well as heterogeneity in the influence of changes in obesity status according to the handgrip strength.
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