Sachiko Inoue

Okayama Prefectural University · Department of Nursing Science

School absenteeism, particularly among junior high school students, has increased annually in Japan. This study demonstrates the relationship between subjective adjustment to school life and students’ absenteeism. Data were collected from 17,378 junior high school students in Japan. A longitudinal design was used for the study. Teachers were asked...

People with severe mental illness (SMI) have considerable unmet physical health needs and an increased risk of early mortality. This cross-sectional survey utilized the Physical Health Attitude Scale (PHASe) to examine the attitudes, practices, and training needs of nurses towards physical health care of people with SMI in three Asian countries (Ho...

Aim: Cross-sectional studies have shown associations between adolescent sleep problems and the use of electronic devices, such as mobile phones, but longitudinal studies remain scarce. We explored any association between delayed bedtimes at six years old and the excessive use of electronic devices at 12 years of age. Texting was a prime focus. Me...

Average maternal age at birth has been rising steadily in Western and some Asian countries. Older maternal age has been associated with adverse pregnancy and birth outcomes; however, studies on the relationship between maternal age and young children’s health remain scarce. Therefore, we sought to investigate the association of maternal age with ch...

Unadjusted, adjusted, and mediator-adjusted odds ratios with 95% confidence intervals and trend test results for associations of maternal age with unintentional injuries at 18 months of child age and hospital admissions at 18 and 66 months in the 2001 cohort (nparity1 = 22,967 and nparity2 = 17,119) and with unintentional injuries and hospital admi...

Baseline characteristics of children by maternal age group in the 2010 cohort of the Longitudinal Survey of Babies in 21st Century (nbaseline = 38,554). (DOC)

Objective The effect of media use on child behavior has long been a concern. Although studies have shown robust cross-sectional relations between TV viewing and child behavior, longitudinal studies remain scarce. Methods We analyzed the Longitudinal Survey of Babies, conducted by Japan's Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare since 2001. Among 53,5...

Background The adverse effects of maternal and paternal smoking on child health have been studied. However, few studies demonstrate the interaction effects of maternal/paternal smoking, and birth outcomes other than birth weight have not been evaluated. The present study examined individual effects of maternal/paternal smoking and their interaction...

Anthropometry measurements, such as height and weight, have recently been used to predict poorer birth outcomes. However, the relationship between maternal height and birth outcomes remains unclear. We examined the effect of shorter maternal height on low birth weight (LBW) among 17,150 pairs of Japanese mothers and newborns. Data for this analysis...

Objectives We investigated the association between breastfeeding duration during the first half year of life and the risk of early childhood caries from the age of 30 to 66 months in Japan. Design Observational study of a longitudinal survey. Setting A secondary data analysis of the Japanese Longitudinal Survey of Babies in the 21st Century. Partic...

Whether or not the protective effects of breastfeeding last during or after a shift to a weaning diet is not clear. In the present study, we examined the effects of breastfeeding on hospitalization for respiratory tract infections and diarrhea in early childhood in Japan. Data were extracted from a nationwide longitudinal survey of Japanese childre...

Behavioral problems are often associated with poor sleep habits in children. We investigated whether undesirable toddler-age sleep schedules may be related to school-age behavioral problems.Methods We analyzed the data of a nationwide longitudinal survey with available results from 2001 to 2011. The participants were 41,890 children. The predictors...

To prospectively examine the prolonged effect of breastfeeding on behavioral development. We used a large, nationwide Japanese population-based longitudinal survey that began in 2001. We restricted participants to term singletons with birth weight >2500 g (n = 41 188). Infant feeding practice was queried at age 6-7 months. Responses to survey quest...

Objectives: We examined the association between social cohesion and mortality in a sample of older adults in Japan. Methods: Data were derived from a cohort study of elderly individuals (65-84 years) in Shizuoka Prefecture; 14 001 participants were enrolled at baseline (1999) and followed up in 2002, 2006, and 2009. Among the 11 092 participants...

Importance Although it is suggested that breastfeeding is protective against obesity in children, the evidence remains inconclusive because of possible residual confounding by socioeconomic status or children’s lifestyle factors. Most of the participants in the previous studies were children in Western developed countries, so studies in a differen...

Barker's fetal programming hypothesis suggests that disproportionate size at birth may have a lifelong impact on one's health. However, the literature on birth length is considerably more sparse compared with birthweight. We, therefore, examined the relationship between birth length and hospitalisation early in life among Japanese children. We used...

Few epidemiological studies have examined the potential protective effects of physical activity on insomnia. The authors thus evaluated the association between physical activity and insomnia in a large population-based study in Shizuoka, Japan. Individual data were obtained from participants in an ongoing cohort study. A total of 14,001 older resid...

ABSTRACT Large-scale food poisoning caused by methylmercury was identified in Minamata, Japan, in the 1950s (Minamata disease). Although the diagnostic criteria for the disease remain current, few studies have been carried out to assess the diagnostic accuracy of the criteria. From a 1971 population-based investigation, data from 2 villages were se...

A lower bodyweight may be associated with adverse birth outcomes, such as low birth weight and being small for a given gestational age. In Japan, the rate of low birth weight has been increasing over the last two decades, such that both low pre-pregnancy weight and inadequate weight gain during pregnancy are viewed as critical issues in terms of th...

Background The proportions of preterm birth (PTB, ie., delivered before 37 gestational weeks) and low birth weight (LBW, ie., birth weight less than 2500 g at delivery) have been rising in developed countries. We sought to examine the factors contributing to the rise in Japan, with particular focus on the effects of obstetric interventions. Method...

Online Table. Crude and adjusted interval odds ratios* (and corresponding 95% CI) for PTB less than 37 wks and LBW.

Recent studies suggest potential adverse effects of methylmercury exposure on myocardial infarction and hypertension, although the evidence is still limited. We thus evaluated this association using age-standardized mortality ratios (ASMRs) in Minamata, where severe methylmercury poisoning had occurred. We obtained mortality data from annual vital...

Yorifuji T, Tanihara S, Inoue S, Takao S, Kawachi I. The role of medicine in the decline of post-War infant mortality in Japan. Paediatric and Perinatal Epidemiology 2011; 25: 601–608. The infant mortality rate (IMR) in Japan declined dramatically in the immediate post-War period (1947–60) in Japan. We compared the time trends in Growth Domestic Pr...

It is well-known that prenatal or postnatal exposure to methylmercury can produce neurological signs in adults and children, exemplified by a case of large-scale poisoning in Minamata, Japan, in the 1950s. However, evidence regarding whether pre- or postnatal exposure to methylmercury causes psychiatric symptoms (e.g., impairment of intelligence an...