Purpose More employees are experiencing a cancer diagnosis during their working-age years, yet there have been no largescale Japanese studies investigating sick leave due to cancer. We clarified differences in the cumulative partial and full return to work (RTW) rates between different cancer types among Japanese cancer survivors. Methods Data on Japanese employees who experienced an episode of sick leave due to clinically certified cancer diagnosed between 1 January 2000 and 31 December 2011 were obtained from an occupational health register. Subject outcomes within the 365-day period following their initial day of sick leave were utilized for this study. We investigated the cumulative partial/full and full RTW rates by using survival analysis with competing risks and predictors of time to RTW by a Fine-Gray proportional hazard regression model. Results One thousand two hundred seventy-eight subjects (1033 males and 245 females) experienced their first episode of sick leave due to cancer during the 12-year follow-up period. Of the subjects, 47.1 % returned to work full time within 6 months of their initial day of sick leave absence, and 62.3 % by 12 months. The cumulative RTW rate varied significantly by cancer type. There were considerable differences in the range of cumulative full RTW rates between the two categories ("lower full RTW rate" groups ("lung," "hepatic, pancreatic," "esophageal," and "blood" cancer groups) vs. "higher full RTW rate" groups ("gastric," "intestinal," "breast," "female genital," "male genital," "urinary"): 6.3 to 14.3 % vs. 11.4 to 28.3 % at 60 days, 10.6 to 22.4 % vs. 27.0 to 50.0 % at 120 days, 21.3 to 34.7 % vs. 38.5 to 65.4 % at 180 days, 34.3 to 42.9 % vs. 66.0 to 79.5 % at 365 days). Additionally, older age may be associated with a longer time to full RTW. Conclusions More than half of the subjects returned to work full-time within the 365-day period following their initial day of sick leave, with cumulative RTW rates varying by cancer type. Older employees may require a longer time to full RTW. Implications of Cancer Survivors It is very important for companies (especially small-and medium-sized companies) to establish and improve their RTW support system for cancer survivors, with knowledge that the median time to RTW is expected to be at least a few months.

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The rapid increase in mobile phone use in young people has generated concern about possible health effects of exposure to radiofrequency (RF) and extremely low frequency (ELF) electromagnetic fields (EMF). MOBI-Kids, a multinational case–control study, investigates the potential effects of childhood and adolescent exposure to EMF from mobile communications technologies on brain tumor risk in 14 countries. The study, which aims to include approximately 1,000 brain tumor cases aged 10–24 years and two individually matched controls for each case, follows a common protocol and builds upon the methodological experience of the INTERPHONE study. The design and conduct of a study on EMF exposure and brain tumor risk in young people in a large number of countries is complex and poses methodological challenges. This manuscript discusses the design of MOBI-Kids and describes the challenges and approaches chosen to address them, including: (1) the choice of controls operated for suspected appendicitis, to reduce potential selection bias related to low response rates among population controls; (2) investigating a young study population spanning a relatively wide age range; (3) conducting a large, multinational epidemiological study, while adhering to increasingly stricter ethics requirements; (4) investigating a rare and potentially fatal disease; and (5) assessing exposure to EMF from communication technologies. Our experience in thus far developing and implementing the study protocol indicates that MOBI-Kids is feasible and will generate results that will contribute to the understanding of potential brain tumor risks associated with use of mobile phones and other wireless communications technologies among young people.

ObjectivesThe objective of this study was to investigate the cumulative return to work (RTW) rate and to clarify the predictors of the time to full-time RTW (full RTW) and resignation among Japanese stroke survivors, within the 365-day period following their initial day of sickness absence due to stroke.SettingThis study was based on tertiary prevention of occupational health in large-scaled Japanese companies of various industries.ParticipantsThe participants in this study were 382 Japanese workers who experienced an episode of sickness leave due to clinically certified stroke diagnosed between 1 January 2000 and 31 December 2011. Data were obtained from an occupational health register. Participants were followed up for 365 days after the start day of the first sickness absence. The cumulative RTW rates by Kaplan-Meier estimates and predictors for time to full RTW and resignation by Cox regression were calculated.ResultsA total of 382 employees had their first sickness absence due to stroke during the 12-year follow-up period. The cumulative full RTW rates at 60, 120, 180 and 365 days were 15.1%, 33.6%, 43.5% and 62.4%, respectively. Employees who took sick leave due to cerebral haemorrhage had a longer time to full RTW (HR, 0.50; 95% CI 0.36 to 0.69) than those with cerebral infarction. Older employees (over 50 years of age) demonstrated a shorter time to resignation than younger employees (HR, 3.30; 95% CI 1.17 to 9.33). Manual workers had a longer time to resignation than non-manual workers (HR, 0.24; 95% CI 0.07 to 0.78).ConclusionsCumulative RTW rates depended on the subtype of stroke, and older age was a predictor of resignation.

Acquiring clinical reasoning skills in lectures may be difficult, but it can be learnt through problem-solving in the context of clinical practice. Problem finding and solving are skills required for clinical reasoning; however, students who underwent problem-based learning (PBL) still have difficulty in acquiring clinical reasoning skills. We hypothesized that team-based learning (TBL), a learning strategy that provides the opportunity to solve problems by repeatedly taking tests, can enhance the clinical reasoning ability in medical students with PBL experiences during the pre-clinical years. TBL courses were designed for 4 th year students in a 6-year program in 2008, 2009, and 2010. TBL individual scores, consisting of a combination of individual and group tests, were compared with scores of several examinations including computer-based testing (CBT), an original examination assessing clinical reasoning ability (problem-solving ability test; P-SAT), term examinations, and Objective Structured Clinical Examination (OSCE). CBT, OSCE and P-SAT scores were compared with those of students who learned clinical reasoning only through PBL tutorials in , 2006 , and 2007. Individual TBL scores of students did not correlate with scores of any other examination. Assessments on clinical reasoning ability, such as CBT, OSCE, and P-SAT scores, were significantly higher in TBL students compared with non-TBL students. Students found TBL to be effective, particularly in areas of problem solving by both individuals and teams, and feedback from specialists. In conclusion, TBL for clinical reasoning is useful in improving clinical reasoning ability in students with PBL experiences with limited clinical exposure. Team-based learning (TBL) is a particular instructional strategy that is designed to support the development of high performance learning teams and to provide opportunities for these teams to engage in significant learning tasks in the same educational circumstance as ordinary lectures in large classrooms (Michaelsen et al. 2002(Michaelsen et al. , 2004. Individual members of the team have a better understanding of the material and the team becomes capable of solving challenging and complex problems through repeated reading assignments, the Individual Readiness Assurance Test (IRAT), intra-team discussion, the Group Readiness Assurance Test (GRAT), inter-team discussion and feedback from instructors. In TBL, learners experience in-class and out-of-class activities through preparation, application, and assessment phases.Our students study basic science, basic medicine, and clinical medicine through a hybrid of lectures, problembased learning (PBL) tutorials, and practical laboratory training in the first 4 years of the 6-year medical program (Kozu 1997;Yoshioka et al. 2005; PBL Tutorial Committee 2009). We strategically integrated TBL, using clinical cases for 4 th year students with abundant PBL experience, to Y. Okubo et al. 24determine whether this would improve students' clinical reasoning ability. Assumed advantages ...

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Characterizing exposure to radiofrequency (RF) fields from wireless telecommunications technologies during childhood and adolescence is a research priority in investigating the health effects of RF. The Mobi-Expo study aimed to describe characteristics and determinants of cellular phone use in 534 young people (10-24years) in 12 countries. The study used a specifically designed software application installed on smartphones to collect data on the use of wireless telecommunications devices within this age group. The role of gender, age, maternal education, calendar period, and country was evaluated through multivariate models mutually adjusting for all variables. Call number and duration were higher among females compared to males (geometric mean (GM) ratio 1.17 and 1.42, respectively), among 20-24year olds compared to 10-14year olds (GM ratio 2.09 and 4.40, respectively), and among lowest compared to highest social classes (GM ratio 1.52 and 1.58, respectively). The number of SMS was higher in females (GM ratio 1.46) and the middle age group (15-19year olds: GM ratio 2.21 compared to 10-14year olds) and decreased over time. Data use was highest in the oldest age group, whereas Wi-Fi use was highest in the middle age group. Both data and Wi-Fi use increased over time. Large differences in the number and duration of calls, SMS, and data/Wi-Fi use were seen by country, with country and age accounting for up to 50% of the variance. Hands-free and laterality of use did not show significant differences by sex, age, education, study period, or country. Although limited by a convenience sample, these results provide valuable insights to the design, analysis, and interpretation of future epidemiological studies concerning the health effects of exposure resulting from cellular phone use in young people. In addition, the information provided by this research may be used to design strategies to minimize RF exposure.