Trends in the prevalence of low birth weight in Okinawa, Japan: a public health perspective

Hokama, Tomiko; Binns, Colin

doi:10.1111/j.1651-2227.2008.01017.x

Cited by 25 publications

(29 citation statements)

References 13 publications

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“…The U.S. National Center for Health Statistics points out that mortality for gestational agespecific (22-36 weeks) preterm infants in the United States compares favorably with those in Europe, but for infants born at 37 weeks or more, the United States has higher mortality (74). Japan has similar PTB rates to those in Europe, much higher rates of low birth weight (considerably higher than in the United States), but better infant mortality outcomes (7,46,74,89,98,102,126).…”

Section: International Rankings Of Population Health Measuresmentioning

confidence: 98%

The Hurrider I Go the Behinder I Get: The Deteriorating International Ranking of U.S. Health Status

Bezruchka

2012

Annu. Rev. Public Health

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The health of societies can be measured by a range of mortality indicators, and comparisons of national parameters with those of other societies can be symbolic of health status and progress. Over the past century, health outcomes have been steadily improving almost everywhere in the world, but the rates of improvements have varied. In the 1950s, the United States, having among the lowest mortality and other indicators of good health, ranked well among nations. Since then, the United States has not seen the scale of improvements in health outcomes enjoyed by most other developed countries, despite spending increasing amounts of its economy on health care services. Trends in personal health-related behaviors are only part of the explanation. Structural factors related to inequality and conditions of early life are important reasons for the relative stagnation in health. Reversing this relative decline would require a major national coordinated long-term effort to expose the problem and create the political will to address it.

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Section: International Rankings Of Population Health Measuresmentioning

confidence: 98%

The Hurrider I Go the Behinder I Get: The Deteriorating International Ranking of U.S. Health Status

Bezruchka

2012

Annu. Rev. Public Health

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“…2.5 kg) in Okinawa than in Japan for decades (e.g. in 1973, 8.1% in Okinawa and 6% in Japan [12] ). It has been argued that the lower infant mortality rate in Okinawa than in Japan before WW2 indicated that, probably, the low birthweight rate was also lower but, due to the war destructions [6] , no data are available for the period before WW2 and, unfortunately, no data on birthweight were gathered under the American military administration, before the reversion of Okinawa to Japan in 1972.…”

Section: Dietary Restriction Studies In Humansmentioning

confidence: 99%

Dietary Restriction Studies in Humans: Focusing on Obesity, Forgetting Longevity

Bourg¹

2011

Gerontology

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Dietary restriction (DR: food restriction without malnutrition) is often considered as a nearly universal means to extend longevity in animal species and we could make the hypothesis that DR could increase longevity in humans. Some authors support the opinion that DR has already increased longevity in Okinawa inhabitants, and thus that DR can increase longevity in humans. The purpose of this article is to stress that no data on humans with a normal body mass index (neither overweight nor obese) indicate that DR can increase life span and health span, particularly because the results observed in Okinawa inhabitants can probably be considered as showing mainly deleterious effects of malnutrition rather than positive effects of DR. Since DR does not appear to increase human life span, studies testing for the effect of DR in humans should focus on the health effects of a mild DR in overweight and obese people, rather than in normal-weight people.

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“…However, Japan is an 'exception' in that it presents one of the highest low birth weight with one of the lowest infant mortality rate. Whereas the prevalence of low birth weight has increased in several OECD countries (OECD, 2009a), Japan is unique among developed countries in that the low birth weight rate has almost doubled in the past three decades (Hokama and Binns, 2009) passing from 5 per cent in the late 1970s to almost 10 per cent in the late 2000s. Possible causes include an increase in smoking among younger women (Ohmi et al, 2001) and the tendency to have children at older ages (Jeong and Hurst, 2001).…”

Section: Healthmentioning

confidence: 99%

Child Well-Being in Advanced Economies in the Late 2000s

Martorano¹,

Natali²,

Neubourg³

et al. 2013

Soc Indic Res

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The full-text may be used and/or reproduced, and given to third parties in any format or medium, without prior permission or charge, for personal research or study, educational, or not-for-prot purposes provided that:• a full bibliographic reference is made to the original source • a link is made to the metadata record in DRO • the full-text is not changed in any way The full-text must not be sold in any format or medium without the formal permission of the copyright holders.Please consult the full DRO policy for further details. ABSTRACTThis paper compares the well-being of children across the most economically advanced countries of the world. It discusses the methodological issues involved in comparing children's well-being across countries and explains how a Child Well-being Index is constructed to rank countries according to their performance in advancing child-well-being. The index uses 30 indicators combined in 13 components again summarised in 5 dimensions for 35 rich countries. Data from various sources are combined to capture aspects of child well-being: material well-being, health, education, behaviour and risks, housing and environment. The scores for the countries on all variables and combinations of variables are discussed in detail. The Child Well-being index reveals that serious differences exist across countries suggesting that in quite many countries improvement could be made in the quality of the lives of children. This paper is one of the three background papers written as the basis for Report Card 11 (2013) titled Child Well-being in Rich Countries: a Comparative View.

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Trends in the prevalence of low birth weight in Okinawa, Japan: a public health perspective

Cited by 25 publications

References 13 publications

The Hurrider I Go the Behinder I Get: The Deteriorating International Ranking of U.S. Health Status

The Hurrider I Go the Behinder I Get: The Deteriorating International Ranking of U.S. Health Status

Dietary Restriction Studies in Humans: Focusing on Obesity, Forgetting Longevity

Child Well-Being in Advanced Economies in the Late 2000s

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